Metro

The metro is the easiest and fastest way of getting around the city. Its layout is quite simple - radial lines, which cut across the city in most directions, are joined together by a circular line, which also joins together the city's largest railway stations and you can get from practically any station to another one with a maximum of two transfers. Trains run from 6am to 1am and you'll rarely wait more than 3 minutes for a train.

Tickets

You buy tickets from the office in the metro station and 1 journey costs just 13 rubles ($0.50) or you can buy multi-journey tickets to get a lower price. You insert your card from the side marked with an arrow into the slot of one of automatic gates. The number of remaining trips is printed on the backside of your card (two right digits).Then the card is returned to you through the upper slot and you should take it out of it, make sure the green light is on and then pass through the gate. No matter how long you ride or how many transfers you make, you pay no extra fee.

Metro stations

Since most of the signs are written in Cyrillic in the stations, it is wise to always carry a metro-map, both in English and in Russian. In most of the train-cars now, the signs are written in both Cyrillic and English. Every time a train stops at a station, you will hear an announcement in Russian which tells you which station you have just arrived at and also the name of the next stop.

At some stations where it is possible to change to another metro line, the station name will be different for the two platforms. This can be rather confusing. The best way to avoid getting lost is to write down the metro stations that you want to access in Cyrillic letters and then compare them with those on the signs.

Metro sightseeing

Even if you don't use the metro very often, it's worth a visit just to see the beautiful stations. A journey on the metro can also be a journey through time, from the Stalinist pomp of the 1930s to the austerity of the 1990s, the Moscow metro remains one of the finest in the world

Komsomolskaya (Brown line)

With its marble pillars, vaulted ceilings and intricate chandeliers, the station is more like a temple than a subway-station. The mosaic depicts famous scenes from Russian history.

Ploschad Revolyutsyi (Blue line)

The great October Revolution of 1917 is depicted in this station, with its huge bronze figures symbolising the Bolshevik conquest of power and the building of the Soviet State.

Mayakovskaya (Green line)

This station is named after the poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky - the vaulted ceiling has 33 mosaic panels and was designed by famous Russian artist Alexander Deyneka.

Kievskaya (Brown Line)

This station portrays the achievement of the Ukrainian people joining the Soviet Union. It is worth remembering, while admiring the paintings of joyous peasants' faces and muscular figures, that 5 million Ukrainian people died in 1932-1934 of a famine induced by Stalin.

Park Kultury (Red Line)

The original terminus of the metro. Here you will find the sculptural 1930s-style figures on the interior walls of the platforms playing all kind of sports.