Getting around the sity
Types of transportation in Russia
What are magnetic cards?
The importance of the car for Russians
Finding out the location of a street, hotel store, etc.
Russia’s cities have a welldeveloped system of public transport, including buses, trolleys, and trams. In Moscow and in other major cities, the most popular form of public transport is the metro.; The metro in these cities is not only convenient and fast, but is also a type of underground museum.;! Most metro stations are beautiful,! with sculptures and mosaics created by leading architects andj artists. The Moscow metro is one of the most beautiful metros in the world.
In 2008, the 177th metro station, ‘Slaviansky Bulvar’, was opened in commemoration of the 861s anniversary of the founding of Moscow, and several new stations are soon to be opened.
To travel by metro, you need to first buy a magnetic card at one the metro ticket booths. The price of a magnetic card does not depend on how far you are traveling in the metro: a oneway trip anywhere bv metro costs a flat fee. The price depends only on the number of trips You can buy a magnetic card for 1 2, 5, 10, or 20 trips. If you are going to use the metro freguently, it is recommended to buy a magnetic card for the maximal number of trips, as it will be cheaper.
For trips on buses, trolleys or trams, you also need to buy a magnetic card. Like the metro, there is a flat fee per trip regardless of how far you are traveling on that particular bus, trolley or tram. Again, the price of the magnetic card dei pends on the number of trips. Inj other cities of Russia, tickets for a oneway trip are sold by driversj and conductors.
In addition to the above forma of transport, there are also express buses and fixedroute taxis. Express buses run, for example, from airports to metro stations, or to the air terminal. Fixed-route taxis are usually vans that accommodate ten to twelve people and travel along set city routes. The fees for these taxis are paid to the driver. And of course there are also regular taxis. The number of ficial taxis in the major cities is relatively low. Therefore, it is corn mon in Russia to use private cars as taxis. You can hail both private I cars and official taxis in the same way: simply extending your arm as you stand on the side of the street. You will need to agree upon a price with the driver, but private 1 cars will freguently be less expens I sive than taxis.
It should be noted that Russia has a very large and broad rail-road network. There are not only long-distance trains such as Mos-cow — St. Petersburg, Moscow — Rostov-on-Don, and Moscow — I Krasnoyarsk, but also suburban I electric trains by which you can I reach any suburb quickly and com- I fortably. The fee per trip on these I electric trains is not high, but like the metro it does depends on the distance travelled.
One of modern-day Moscow’s major problems, as in other large cities across the world, is traffic jams. Lately, a great many cars I have appeared in Moscow, num-bering now over 3 500 000, with I this number increasing by аЬоиШ 300 000 every year.
The car matters a lot to Russians. I During the Soviet era it was practically impossible to buy a car, seeing as they produced only a small number of them, which wasn’t enough to satisfy the reguirements of the people. You had to wait your turn for years to buy a car. Moreover, they were very expensive, and it was necessary to save up for years on end before you could buy a car. After the shortage disappeared and a large number of new and used foreign cars began to be imported into Russia the problem was solved. A car has become accessible. Well-to-do people buy prestigious and expensive foreign vehicles, such as the latest models put out by Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Jeeps of different firms and models are very popular in Russia. Russia is one of the world’s leaders in buying the most expensive and prestigious cars. People who are less wealthy can buy domestically produced cars or used foreign cars, and so their number in Russia is also high.
For Russians, the car is not only a means of conveyance, but a kindof hobby as well. Russian men are fond of spending a lot of time with their cars, freguently repairing them themselves. A Russian man often prefers to be stuck in a traffie jam in his car than to travel bv public transport.
Now a large number of women (more often – young girls) drive cars, which was fairly uncommon in Russian even just ten years ago
On Friday evening many families leave Moscow for their dachas in the suburbs, at which time the city’s traffic jams stretch for many kilometers. On usual workdays though, traffic jams are also a regular occurrence in Moscow. ThJ city center is full of small narrow streets and parking places are few, making for freguent traffic jams. Moreover, about forty percent ofj the people living throughout Moscow’s suburbs come to the city to work. Lately the Moscow authori ties have tried to solve this problem by building new roads, junctions and trestles, but the traffic jams have remained.
So if you are hurrying somewhere in Moscow, you had better go by metro. In Moscow, the metro is the fastest and the most dependable form of transport.
And finally, how do you find your way around the city? In major cities, as well as at all train stations and airports, there are kiosks marked Справки or Information. Here you can find out the address or telephone number of J company, university, museum orj hotel, as well as directions of how! to get there. There is also paid telephone information where you can get the address and telephone! number you need. If you get lost you can ask a passer-by «Извините me, где …?» (“Excuse me, where] …?”) or «Как дойти до …/ Как доехать до …?» (“How to get tol …?”), and you will usually get the! information that you need.
For easy navigation of the site use the search at the top