Greetings.
In article , Ian Jelf wrote:
In message , Tristan Miller
writes
Greetings.
I just got back from a trip to Moscow. I made extensive use of the Metro
there and thought I'd post my observations on how it compares with the
London Underground.
Thanks **very** much for posting this.
We're off to Moscow (and Saint Petersburg) later in the summer and I'd
been wondering about some of the "transport" elements, for Metro,
trolleybus and indeed tram.
I do realise that the Metro is (relatively) accessible to visitors.
The trolleybuses also seem fairly easy to sample but I'm less sure about
the trams. The guide books I've read only refer to them "not being in
the centre" and largely gloss over them.
I didn't use or see any trams, though I did see signage for them in the
suburban Metro stations. The only transport I took was the Metro, the
buses, the marshrutkas, a riverboat cruise, a taxi from the airport, and a
the train back to the airport.
Did you take any photographs/have any problems taking them/not feel like
taking them/get threatened for taking them?
I took several photographs on the Metro and didn't have any problems
whatsoever doing so. With stations so ornate, the police and staff are
used to it. Just be considerate of commuters and don't get in anyone's
way. You can see the photos I took he
http://www.nothingisreal.com/photos/...2010-07/Metro/
Things I like better about the Moscow Metro:
* The trains seem to run a lot more frequently. I used the system on
both weekends and weekdays, at various times of the day (morning and
evening rush hours, mid-afternoon, and late at night), and never had to
wait more than three minutes for a train, even if I arrived just as one
was leaving the platform.
I seldom find I have to wait that long in Central London!
Really? I often have to wait five to seven minutes for the Central and
Northern Lines in Central London, and for the Jubilee Line at Stratford.
* The pricing is simple: it's 26 RUB for each journey, regardless of
distance or number of interchanges.
How do you buy tickets? Just individually at the ticket office? Is
there anything like Oyster or - more usefully for us - a Paris-style
Carnet?
I don't have any experience buying tickets, as my girlfriend gave me a card
good for ten trips. It was an ordinary-looking paper card that must have
had some embedded magnetic strip or chip in it; just like in London you
swiped it at the entrance to the station, and a display on the pillar told
you how many trips you had remaining. This card was not valid on the
buses, which used separate single-use tickets (again, purchased for me in
advance by my girlfriend, whence I know not) which were validated upon
boarding. The marshrutkas are cash-only; you pay the driver 25 RUB. When
several people board at once, rather than pay the driver individually, you
just give your fare to the passenger sitting next to you, who passes it on.
Whoever sits closest to the driver ends up with a big wad of cash which
they give the driver, telling him how many passengers it's for.
* There seems to be a mobile phone signal in many stations I passed
through (maybe all of them -- I didn't check).
Oh good....... ;-(
Don't worry; the trains stop briefly enough at the stations that nobody has
time to yak on the trains. However, people do send and receive texts at
the stations.
I've been warned about that. We're urgently trying to learn to
decipher Cyrillic letters. (SWMBO is very good at that sort of thing,
as I discovered in Greece.......)
If you know the Greek and Latin alphabets, then Cyrillic will be easy to
pick up. I've never had any training in Russian but within a couple days
of my first trip there I had no problem reading the signs. There are 33
letters, of which about two thirds closely match the sound of the Greek or
Latin letter they resemble. That leaves only Ж, И, Й, Н, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы,
Ь, Ю, and Я. И (I) and Н (N) you will decipher immediately because they're
so ubiquitous and found in international words and famous names; the first
time you see a statue or picture of Lenin with the sign "Ленин" you will
figure out those two letters right away.
Regards,
Tristan
--
_
_V.-o Tristan Miller Space is limited
/ |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\
http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you