Ode to The Russian Metro


The Russian Metro system deserves mention as one of the largest, fastest, loudest, most utilitarian, most well-designed underground train systems in the world today. London’s underground pales in comparison. Yes, I’ve been on both. Piccadilly square, Charing Cross station, have their uniquely English charms, of course. My purpose is not to downplay those charms by any means. Surely Moscow’s metro train system has some draw backs too, however like a typical Russian-built machine these trains are bullet proof, utilitarian, and made to last for years and years. They are powerful in acceleration & stopping and have a top speed of about 60 to 80 miles an hour. They scream along very loudly too. They’re painted dark utilitarian military green. You can feel the wind rush into the station and hear the train whining down the tunnel long before it arrives and as it does, it’s four bright headlights with over-compensating, millions-of-utilitarian-candlepower ratings, blaze well away into the dark tunnels ahead of them. They scream evenly to a halt right where the driver wants them and each train is a uniform length, approximately the length of each of the uniformly long stations – about six train cars long. No matter where you stand to board, there will be a train door near you once the train halts. The main central line goes around central Moscow in ring-road fashion, crossing the Moscow river above ground only in two places. All the really beautiful old stations are located around this ring track – each unique and on the verge of being of spell-binding in the “ornate-ness” of the stained-glass work and sculpture that was built into each station, were it not for the thousands of people moving through them by the minute. It would make a very interesting project though and as soon as I have access to internet again I’m going to see if anybody has done any work documenting, researching, or studying these stations yet. Spidering out from the central line in every direction are numerous radials of secondary tracks that handle the moving of people out to all areas of Moscow. Each station is named different and is different in appearance than another. The pattern of the system is well laid out and easily mapped. Good, easy to read maps therefore are available.
In my opinion it’s a far better design than British railway Engineers could ever come up with. On the down side – it is of course serving Moscow and as such all signage is naturally in Cyrillic writ so you have to know how to read Cyrillic if you want to get around at all. I’m just learning how to read Cyrillic but I’m lucky to have an accommodating Russian wife to do ALL our navigating for us. Also there is a bit of a long walk to the metro station from wherever you begin, however, my wife assures me long walks in Russia are normal – get used to it! If you can’t handle the walking, you’ll see cars along the road – not taxis. Just guys sitting in their Lada number ones, waiting for a “fare”. Thirty Rubles (about $1.00 Am.) to anywhere within 25-kilometers. After that, it’s up to the driver how much he’ll sting you for. Note: let your wife do all the talking in Russian and it will be very cheap ride for you.

I write

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