Moscow Transportation Tips by TheWanderingCamel Top 5 Page for this destination

Mastering the Metro By Metro Review

The Moscow Metro is famed for the opulence of some of its stations and there are few tourists who don't venture below the streets to look at these "palaces for the people".
It is also the most efficient way of getting around the city. With roads often clogged with traffic and a truly mysterious one-way system on many of them, the metro network will get you just about anywhere you want to go much faster and with less confusion . The trains are big, fast and very, very frequent.

There are a few things you need to get clear before you set out though.

1. A familiarity with the Cyrillic alphabet is a BIG help. Metro maps give station names in Latin as well as Cyrillic type but this isn't repeated on the station signs, though the line maps on the trains themselves sometimes do. It really pays to familarize yourself with at least the first few letters of the name of the station you are heading for so that you recognize it when you get there.

2. Count the number of stops to your destination, and keep that number in your head. The station names tend to be on the tunnel wall rather than on the platform, fine when you are waiting for the train but not so good as you are coming into the station on the train and frantically looking to see where you are.

3. Interchanges can be confusing. Unlike other cities, Moscow's stations all have individual names and entrances so when you're underground and you want to change to another line you will be looking for a new station name rather than the names of a line. The lines are colour coded and the names of the stations along the line are given, but then you're back to contending with that Cyrillic script again.

4. Buying a block of 10 or 20 rides will save you money, and if 2 of you are travelling together, you can buy 1 block and share it by simply passing the ticket back over the barrier.

5. When you think the escalator you are on is actually heading for the deepest bowels of the earth, remember that many of these stations were built to function as bomb shelters.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Subway/Metro