Day 10: The Moscow Metro

We arrived at Moscow early morning on the 4th, and as Moscow is a very large city, the Moscow Metro quickly became our best friend.

A train arrives at Novoslodskaya station.  This photo was taken during my previous trip to Moscow in 2011.

The fares are very affordable – single rides cost a little under $1 (28 rubles if I recall correctly) with discounts for buying in bulk.  They use magnetized paper cards to scan in to the stations, and a single ride will take you as far as you want to in the system.

Komsomolskaya metro station.  The escalators descend to the tracks.	Waiting in line to buy tickets.  It’s not bad most of the time, but everyone who arrived on the trains before 0530hrs had to wait until the station opened.

The subways are also very deep – escalator rides can last over a minute (and the escalators travel faster than most escalators in the West).  In Moscow, the citizens are very scrupulous about standing on the right and walking on the left of the escalator, and oftentimes people will turn to face each other on the long rides and carry on a conversation during the ride down.  The subway stations themselves are as far underground as 80 meters, allowing them to double as bomb shelters or fallout shelters (as actually happened in World War II).

Ascending from Teatralnaya station.	Scenes from Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” are displayed (along with scenes from his other classic works) at the Dostoyevskaya station.

The stations are very grandiose.  This was part of Stalin’s plan to showcase how the Soviets were building a sort of underground palace for the common people (“We may trample on your freedom and send you to the gulag, but look on the bright side: you have a great metro!”)  They are the most elaborate stations I’ve seen (though I’ve heard the North Koreans have a similar style in theirs) with everything from busts and mosaic to stained glass windows and elaborate interior patterns.  It’s fun just to travel from station to station to see their grandeur.

Mural at Park Povedy (Victory Park) station.	Mayakovskaya station, where Stalin gave a speech in November 1941 when it was being used as an air raid shelter.  Photo is from my previous trip to Moscow.

The trains come very frequently.  At the end of each platform is a clock showing the current time, and a timer showing how long its been since the last train departed.  In the more than 20 subway rides I’ve taken in Moscow, there’s only been one where I’ve had to wait five minutes.  The average waiting time varies between 1-3 minutes.

The ride is pretty rough.  In most cases, older style cars (probably from the 50s or 60s though I don’t have any actual data on this) are still being used in the metro.  This means there’s no AC (the windows are opened to provide airflow, but that also makes it very loud inside).  The brakes and accelerator also are a bit rough and makes you feel like you’re traveling much faster than you really are.  There are a few newer cars that are in use with a much smoother ride, but not too many.

Train pulling into the station.  The upcoming stops and transfers are listed on the wall on the left.	Typical walkways going from station to station underground.

Navigating, as in most metro systems, is pretty straightforward though it takes a minute to get used to it.  The signage in the station is in Cyrillic though English language maps are available.  On the wall of each subway line is an arrow in the direction of travel, listing all the stations in that direction and showing transfers (with all the stations of the transfers).  The other key identifier is as you go down into the subway it lists the line number and all stations on that line, and once you get to the station another sign shows which platform to use.

Close-up of the on-wall navigation map.  If you want to see the entire subway system, the red and blue “SOS/information” stands in the middle of the station have a complete map on them, as do the subway cars themselves.

All in all, the Moscow Metro is essential for travel, is easy to use, and has a bit of character with its stations and old-fashioned cars.  There are direct express trains that go from major stations to the airports and vice versa (Beloruskaya for Sheremetyevo airport, Kievskaya for Domodedovo airport).

Fresh off the train from Irkutsk we wait at a statue of St. George (the patron saint of the city) outside the Komsomolskaya metro station (the large white building in the background) waiting for it to open so we can go to the hostel.