Metro

St-Petersburg metro is the main kind of transport for most people of our city.The construction of metro began in 1947 and in 1955 the first line was opened for passengers. Since that time metro grew up to four lines and the construction of the new stations and tunnels is still in progress.

Our metro consists of four lines: Line 1 (Red); Line 2 (Blue); Line 3 (Green); Line 4 (Yellow/orange).	View Big Map

First line is the oldest, fourth — the newest one. To take a ride a metro you should pay for it. There are two ways: to buy metro coins or metro cards. They can be bought only in booking offices in metro stations. Unfortunately our metro is terribly unfriendly for the foreign visitors — everything in Russian (tittles, warnings, information). Most of metro personnel probably do not speak English.

There many types of the cards (some of them give you certain tariff preferences). All of them has limited period of validity (from one up to several months). Cards are made of plastic and are non-expendable. You can "update/refresh" data on your card regularly (when it is empty, or expired).

Note. If the card was not in use for the period of time longer then three months it would become inoperable.

Metro coin. Front.	Metro coin. Back.

So, the easiest way to pay for metro is coins. One coin costs about 20 US cents. To buy a single coin it is not necessary to know russian. Just give money to cashier enough for the desired number of coins. Also you can show number of coins with your fingers. But it would be better for you to learn numbers from zero to ten in Russian.

To get access to the station you should insert coin into the coin slot on the top of the turnstile — if green arrow lights, you can go. Sometimes coins do not work from the first (green arrow does not light), so — fetch returned coin from the special small hole on the front panel of the turnstile and try again (or try another turnstile). 

As I mentioned already, metro in our city is very important kind of public transport. It is really overcrowded at rush hours:

• morning rush hours: 8:00am-9:00am;
• evening rush hours: 5:30pm-7:30pm.

We would not recommend you to ride any public transport at that time.

Time interval between trains is about 1-2 minutes at rush hours and 3-6 minutes all the other time. Train stops at a station for about 15 seconds. There are special clock on each station, showing exact local time and time since departure of a previous train.

Each car in metro has four doors by each side. Doors open/close automatically. On most stations exit from the car is through the left doors. There is no passages between cars. It is a common practice that young people and adult men should allow women and old people to sit. This is a sign of a good breeding.

On most stations you will be unable to see the name of the station from the train. So you may count stations or try to listen to the voice, that tells the name of the current station and the name of the next one (both of these names go one after each other — be attentive). Example (in English): "This is Dostoyevskaya. Sadovaya is next".

Metro As A Museum

St-Petersburg metro is the most beautiful metro of the world. Stations of the line 1 (from Prospect Veteranov till Vladimirskaya) have the most outstanding appearance. They were made to show the power and greatness of Soviet people and their country. There is a lot of lamps, made of crystal and bronze. Avtovo station has columns made of glass, supporting the arch; Tehnologicheskiy Institute station has records on the walls, talking about great achievements of Soviet People.

Baltiyskaya station	Primorskaya station

Then, in 60-s lots of stations were made very simple and functional. But, since 1980-s new stations look also varied and unique. These are stations of line 4 (yellow/orange), especially from Staraya Derevnya till Ploschad Alexandra Nevskovo II.

Typical moving staircase

Our metro is the deepest metro also. It takes a couple of minutes to get from surface till the underground station. Moving staircases are really long and it is the only way to get to the train or to the surface. Only a couple of stations (like Avtovo, for example) lay not so deep underground and do not have moving staircases. Using moving staircases stand to the right side, allow people to walk by the left side.

There are no elevators in metro.

Note. It is forbidden to use any cameras, camcorders, musical instruments in metro (it is considered to be a military object). So, you can feel like a spy, taking pictures and jumping into the departure train! It is also forbidden to smoke, litter in the metro and eat ice-cream and any food that can smear people around you. You also can not have beverages in opened bottles (cans). There is a law, allowing to punish you for these actions.

There are no trash cans and restrooms in metro.

Safety

Metro is quite safe kind of public transport at any time of the day. There is a Police room at all of the stations. Policemen are on duty on all passages between stations. But, they can not protect you from the pickpockets in the train, so — be attentive, especially at rush hours. If you have backpack, we suggest you to hold it in your hands: it will be more safe, and it will not disturb other passengers.

Metro Every Day

A lot of people of our city spend more then an hour in metro every day. If your work is far from your home, metro is the easiest fastest and the most safe way to get there and back. Metro stations are the most common place of meeting people, if they plan to go somewhere.

Also there are lots of small kiosks (especially news-stalls, bookstalls and CD-stalls). All the newspapers, magazines and books there are in Russian. You can find there lots of wall calendars with sights of St-Petersburg and Russia.

Technical Information

• Number of cars in a train: 6 or 7;
• Total length of lines: 99.5km;
• Total passengers per day: 2 748 300;
• Voltage: 825V DC;