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• Travel Information

Find out about assisted travel, mobility help & accessible facilities for wheelchairs. We want all our passengers to have an enjoyable and relaxing journey.

Book passenger assist with the transreport app..

The Transreport app takes the time and fuss out of having to call our contact centre. Instead, input your requirements and book passenger assist on the go. Download the Transreport App via the links below:

Need assistance for your journey?

By letting us know your travel requirements in advance, we can help make sure you have a hassle-free journey.

Passenger Assist can be booked up to two hours before your journey.

Booking Passenger Assist

To book passenger assist for your next journey you can contact us via using the methods detailed below:

Booking a journey through our website?

If you're going to buy or have already purchased a ticket for an upcoming journey you’ll able to book passenger assistance before you travel.

• Sign in to your account (top right the Avanti West Coast website). Then go to “My bookings”.
• Select an upcoming journey you wish to book assistance by clicking the “Book passenger assist” button.
• Fill out your requirements and we'll take care of the rest.

Book Passenger Assist using the Transreport App

You can book Passenger Assist using the Transreport App.

This app takes the time and fuss out of having to call our contact centre. Instead, you can input your requirements and book passenger assist on the go. Click the links below to download it now:

Book Passenger Assist via our online booking form

Book Passenger Assist for your next trip by using  online form .

Click here to book Passenger Assist

Fill out your details and requirements and we'll take care of the rest.

What is Passenger Assist?

Passenger Assist is our service for passengers with special travel requirements.

It gives us the ability to:

• Arrange assistance
• Help you on and off our trains
• Reserve wheelchair spaces and seats
• Provide you with detailed rail information 
• Assist with any animals or pets you have with you

Please let our team know if you’d like to maintain social distancing during the Passenger Assistance process.

Find out how we're  Making Rail Accessible and learn more about our policies and practices .

More information

Book passenger assist via our phone line.

Call us on 0345 528 0253 - option 3  -  we're open 24 hours a day Monday to Sunday . Tickets can also be purchased using this service.

You can find station accessibility information here:

Station information And, you can find information on all temporary reductions in accessibility of each station we call at by visiting our journey check page here:

Will assistance still be available if I haven’t booked?

If you need a hand on the day and haven’t booked, we will do everything that we can to help. Please speak to a member of our team. If there are no members of our team available, please contact us on social media @avantiwestcoast or by using the station help points.

The Sunflower scheme

We recognise that not every disability is visible, and we hope all our customers can travel with dignity. That’s why we’ve partnered with The Sunflower Scheme. By wearing The Sunflower Scheme lanyard, you can discreetly indicate to our staff that you may need additional support, a little more time or that you’re unable to wear a face covering.

To find out more, please click here .

Alongside this, we also still recognise Just a Minute (JAM) cards. For more information about JAM cards, please take a look here: JAM cards

What if I need help with my luggage?

We can help with your luggage, but we’d really appreciate if you could limit the amount you bring along to the essentials.

Wheelchair users

Space for wheelchairs can often be limited, so it’s usually best to let us know at least 24 hours before you travel. You’ll have peace of mind for the journey and we’ll be able to arrange for a member of the team to give you any help you need. Booking ahead will also help us plan with Network Rail and other train operators to improve your onward journey.

Wheelchairs and scooters carried

• Width: 700mm
• Length: 1200mm
• Weight: (including passenger) 300kg

If we do not provide the support you booked.

Our teams work hard to provide you with the help and assistance you need to be able to complete your journey with ease, however we recognise that sometimes, things do not go as planned.

If the assistance you have booked is not provided or does not meet your requirements, please let a member of staff or the Passenger Assist team know at the time so that we can resolve the issue.

If you need to provide feedback after travelling please contact our Passenger Assist Team on 0345 528 0253 - option 3.

Where things have not gone as planned, we will use feedback provided to improve how we work and the approach of others who provide the assistance service on our behalf.

When you have booked assistance and it has not been delivered you will be eligible for compensation for your journey. When your assistance was booked for travel on one of our trains we will provide both the compensation and a response. You can claim this by contacting our Passenger Assist Team. If you were travelling on another train company’s service for all or part of your journey, you can choose to contact them directly, or we can liaise with them on your behalf.

We also offer our Accessible Travel Policy in alternative formats, specifically:

• Large Print

You can ask for an alternative format by contacting our Customer Resolution or Passenger Assist team on 0345 528 0253 - option 3.

Assistance Performance

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• Passenger Assist

passenger assist with lumo

Our commitment at Lumo is to delivering a consistent, high quality service, making journeys easy, convenient and above all ensuring that accessibility is at the forefront of each and every stage of the customer journey.  Our aim is to ensure that the needs of customers, their companions and assistance dogs, requiring assistance are properly considered in all aspects of the customer journey, enabling them to travel confidently and independently.

We also recognise the importance of improving the accessibility of the rail network.  We therefore work with other organisations across our network (including Network Rail and Station Facility Operators) to deliver accessibility improvements to facilities, systems and service delivery.  Furthermore, we recognise the importance of implementing robust and customer focused processes that are consistent across the rail network and we will work proactively with stakeholders to achieve this goal.

WAYS TO BOOK YOUR ASSISTANCE Our Passenger Assist team are available 24/7, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. All our customers can book assistance using any of these dedicated channels:

• Via our webform: www.railhelp.co.uk/lumo/passenger-assist
• By the Passenger Assistance by TransReport App (available through the App Store and Google Play)
• By WhatsApp: 07816 123149 Simply message "Assisted Travel" to this number and our social media team can help with your booking (each day between 0600-2300, excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day)
• By email: [email protected]
• By phone: 0800 031 8542
• By text relay: 18001 0800 031 8542

DELAYS AND DISRUPTION

When you have assistance booked on our services and we know that the journey is no longer viable due to engineering works, industrial action, or severe weather for instance, our Passenger Assist team will contact you to discuss your journey and make alternative arrangements or provide a refund if you choose not to travel. Where a potential issue is identified with less than 24 hours’ notice and we were not able to contact you, station colleagues will inform you when you arrive and discuss alternative arrangements with you.  Details of how to claim Delay Repay compensation can be found on our website at www.lumo.co.uk/help/delay-repay . Our onboard Customer Experience Ambassadors are trained to recognise and help customers who may need assistance. They will communicate news of any service disruption and provision of alternative transport via the Passenger Information Systems or, where possible, in person.  The provision of Help Points, at some of the stations we serve, give a link to assistance teams 24 hours seven days a week (except Christmas Day and Boxing Day) who will also be able to assist you in re-planning your journey on our behalf.

Accessible Travel Policy

Making rail accessible, lumo route autism guide, disabled persons railcard, policy documents:.

• Our Accessible Travel Policy  Full details of our ‘Accessible Travel Policy’, which provides details of our commitments to making our services accessible, can be viewed  here .
• Our Accessible Travel Policy Passenger Leaflet : Making Rail Accessible: Helping Older and Disabled Passengers: a summary of practical information about travelling on our services and the wider rail network.
• Lumo Route Autism Guide ; we offer a route guide specifically designed for people with autism.  You can find it  here   to download or print it at your leisure.
• Our stations accessibility information : Available on our website at  Where We Go .
• Our trains accessibility information : Available on our website at  Onboard , providing details of the accessible features on our trains.
• Assistance Dogs UK Card : Available to download here .

All our leaflets are available to download both in standard and accessible formats. Our Accessible Travel Policy Passenger Leaflet is available from any staffed station where we call. Our Passenger Assist team are available 24/7, except Christmas Day.  To make sure that our colleagues can give you the best service and notify you if there is anything that will affect your journey, we recommend booking assistance at least two hours before your journey.

Let us help you

Access for All: assisted travel lounge opens in Birmingham

A dedicated assisted travel lounge has opened at birmingham new street station in our latest effort for our access for all programme..

The programme provides obstacle-free, accessible route to and between platforms to improve travel for passengers.

The government’s  Department for Transport , which funds much of Network Rail’s activities, has secured further funding of up to £300m to extend the initiative between April 2019 and March 2024.

The lounge at  Birmingham New Street  follows a £175,000 investment by Network Rail and helps passengers who need help to get on and off trains.

We offer assisted travel to all passengers who need help getting between trains and the station concourse. Last year, almost 59,000 people used the service at Birmingham New Street.

The lounge provides a welcoming waiting space for people with additional mobility and sensory needs. A dedicated team is on hand to help them.

The door will always be open, with bright multi-coloured signs to aid the visually impaired, to make it easily accessible during opening hours.

There are 24 seats at different heights – an increase of 140% from the former waiting area in the main station reception. There is also a water bowl for service dogs.

The lounge was designed with the guidance of Birmingham New Street’s accessibility forum, which includes disabled people, their carers and advocates, to ensure the space meets the needs of those who will use it.

I’m registered blind and travel with my guide dog Lily through the station which can sometimes be challenging. Having this new waiting lounge will give me a calm place to wait for assistance staff and will be great for the hundreds of people who use assisted travel every week. Network Rail has ticked so many of the boxes and has listened to what people like me need.

Mark Sanders, a member of the Birmingham Accessibility Forum

Inclusive design

Inclusive design is an important part of Access for All. It put passengers’ needs at the heart of design and benefits people with a broad range of access requirements, including disabled people, some older people and those travelling with children or heavy luggage.

When inclusive design is achieved in our spaces and places – such as stations and footbridges – it means everyone can benefit from our full range of services and opportunities. It:

• ensures everyone can use the railway safely, easily and with dignity
• acknowledges diversity and difference, and is responsive to people’s needs
• offers choice where a single design solution may not work for everyone
• provides for flexibility in use, offering more than one solution to help balance everyone’s needs; and
• provides buildings and environments that are convenient and enjoyable for everyone.

One of our accessible lifts

Moscow Public Transportation

The public transportation system in Moscow is moderately accessible, much to the surprise of many. Use of this transportation network will require some planning for disabled travelers, especially those in wheelchairs. An ability to understand and recognize the Cyrillic alphabet will also make its use much easier for travelers of all abilities. The city’s subway system is not accessible to wheelchairs. The vast majority of city buses and trolley buses offer step-free access.

Metro Subway

The Moscow Metro Subway is spread across 12 lines and serves 196 stations throughout the city. While some stations have recently had elevators installed, the system cannot be considered wheelchair accessible. Large gaps of up to 6 inches exist between the subway train and station platforms. Trains are often not level with the platform and require a step up of a similar distance.

Stations without elevators require travelers to ascend or descend long flights of stairs. I strongly recommend that you use the accessible city bus network and avoid the subway.

City Bus and Trolleybus System

Moscow is served by an increasingly modern city bus system with hundreds of routes/lines. Every major city street is served by at least one bus line. Busses are numbered and lettered with route information. The network consists of normal, gas-powered city buses and the largest electricity-powered trolleybus system in the world.

The majority of city buses and trolleybuses now have lowered floors and are wheelchair accessible. The door at the center of the bus is equipped with a manual ramp which the bus operator will extend for wheelchair users. These ramps can be quite steep, but the bus operator can assist with pushing the wheelchair up the ramp. Wheelchair accessible buses are equipped with a securement space for wheelchairs with tie downs/straps and a seatbelt. Priority reserved seating is available for seniors and persons with disabilities.

All wheelchair accessible buses are marked with the international symbol of access (the wheelchair icon) at the center door or on the front of the vehicle. Wheelchair entry is possible only through the center door, where the retractable or fold out ramp is located. Wheelchair travelers ride the city bus and trolleybus free of charge. You should flag down the approaching bus if wish to ride, so that the operator can maneuver the bus close to the curb for ramp deployment.

On-street rail trams

The City of Moscow is served by 44 on street tram lines, which run on recessed rails and are powered by electricity. All trams require riders to climb several steps in order to access the passenger cabin. There are no implements which make wheelchair access possible. Disabled travelers should plan to avoid any routes which require the use of a tram. City buses adequately serve all parts of the city in which the trams operate.

City Sightseeing Moscow Hop-on/off Tour Bus

Although it is not managed by the city, the City Sightseeing Moscow tour bus travels to all of the major sights in Moscow and allows patrons to hop-on and hop-off at nearly 40 stops. The bus stops at or near all of the sights I have reviewed on this website. The next bus is available 30-40 minutes after the one before and the entire route circle takes 60 minutes to complete. Buses are wheelchair accessible, with fold-out ramps at the rear doors. One dedicated wheelchair space is available on each bus.

Passengers are provided with a set of headphones which can be plugged in to the at-seat ports. An audio guide is available in multiple languages, including English. Tickets for adults, good for 24 hours from the time of purchase, are available for 700 RUB. They can be purchased online with credit card, or onboard the bus with cash.  Tickets are provided free of charge to wheelchair users and for other persons with proof of disability. Discounts are also available to seniors with identification. For additional information on the Moscow City Sightseeing Bus or to download route maps, visit  city-sightseeing.com .

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2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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21 Things to Know Before You Go to Moscow

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How to use the Moscow Metro (PHOTOS+INFOGRAPHICS)

It’s really convenient to use the Moscow Metro and city trains. They operate from 5:30 in the morning to 1:00 at night and you can pay for them with the same ‘Troika’ ticket card. Indeed, the map of the subway looks complex. But that’s only at first glance.

For starters, let’s separate the underground metro from surface city trains. The underground map is marked by bright solid lines, while the lines of surface routes are marked by two parallel lines with a white gap in between.

Underground metro system

It has two ring lines – the brown Koltsevaya, or Circle line (5) and the new Bolshaya Koltsevaya line (Big Circle Line) colored turquoise (number 11). These rings cross all other underground metro lines, so if you need to reach another line from the outskirts – it’s convenient to use one of the ring lines.

Circle Line

We can consider that the center of the city is inside of the ring line (5). Also there’s a multitude of transfers from one line to another within the brown ring. The record holder is Biblioteka Imeni Lenina – Arbatskaya – Alexandrovsky Sad – Borovitskaya. These whole four lines crossed in one place (right next to the Moscow Kremlin). Also, you can reach the Kremlin quickly and conveniently from stations Okhotny Ryad – Teatralnaya – Ploshchad Revolyutsii, which also have transfers between each other.

Big Circle Line

You can also reach the Vnukovo Airport right by metro! The corresponding station of the Solntsevskaya Line (8A) was opened in September 2023.

How does the underground metro operate?

Pykhtino metro station, opened in 2023

The intervals between trains are really small – on average about 2 minutes; during rush hour, they run even more often. So you don’t need to run and squeeze yourself into closing doors (that’s also dangerous). Just wait for the next train, it’ll arrive quickly. Unlike the subway systems of other cities – the trains run along single lines, without branching away. So you can just board the train in the required direction without worrying that you will go somewhere you didn’t intend to.

There are only two exceptions:

• From Alexandrovsky Sad Station of the light-blue line trains run either to Mezhdunarodnaya Station (where Moscow City is located, where a lot of businessmen go) or to Pionerskaya.
• Bolshaya Koltsevaya line also has the so-called fork branching: from Savelovskaya Station to the Business Center (also to Moscow City).

Sometimes you can hear an announcement ‘This train runs to the station…’ If you need to go further, you simply need to get off at the station the train is bound for, and wait for the next train. Perhaps, this train just needs to go to the depot.

Surface routes:

Apart from the underground metro itself, the new map marks suburban trains. You can tell them apart immediately – these lines are indicated with two parallel lines with a white gap in between.

1) MCC: Moscow Central Circle (14)

Moscow Central Circle (MCC)

Let’s take a look at the map again and find a red circle, situated between the underground Koltsevaya (5) and Bolshaya Koltsevaya (11) lines. This is the Moscow Central Circle (14) or simply MCC.

This is a surface urban train that circles around the city. There are stations from where you can transfer to the underground metro. However, these transfers usually are not as short as between subway stations. Sometimes you’ll need about 10 minutes of walking to transfer.

So we don’t recommend you to use MCC purely as a transfer route. In addition, the interval between trains on MCC is longer than in the metro, and can reach 4-8 minutes, depending on the time of day.

However, a big advantage of the MCC is that it has a lot of stations that are far removed from the metro, and which are most conveniently reached specifically by the MCC.

2) Moscow Central Diameters (MCD)

Moscow Central Diameters (MCD)

Moscow diameters on the metro map are the longest lines that cross the entire city (hence, they are called diameters). They are reminiscent of urban trains, like S-Bahn in Berlin or Vienna or RER in Paris.

Those are suburban train lines that run from suburbs (from the Moscow Region, marked as a green shadow on the map) and, crossing the entire city, are bound for suburbs on the other side of the city. At some of the stations of a diameter you can get off and transfer to the metro or the MCC. During rush hour, MCD trains run with an interval of 5-7 minutes.

D1 – Belorussko-Savyolovsky Yellow Diameter runs from Odintsovo Station south-west from Moscow through Moscow City and Belorussky railway station to Sheremetyevo Airport and to Lobnya Station in the north.

D2 – Kursko-Rizhsky Pink Diameter runs from the Moscow Region city of Podolsk in the south through Kursky railway station, Three Station Square (Leningradsky, Kazansky, Yaroslavsky), and Rizhsky railway station to the village of Nakhabino in the north-west.

D3 – Leningradsko-Kazansky Orange Diameter runs from Ippodrom Station in the south-east (the city of Ramenskoye) to Zelenograd in the north.

D4 – Kaluzhsko-Nizhegorodsky Green Diameter runs from the city of Aprelevka in the south-west through Moscow City, Belorussky, Savelovsky, and Kursky railway stations, as well as through Three Station Square (Leningradsky, Kazansky, Yaroslavsky) to Zheleznodorozhnaya Station in the city of Balashikha in the east.

A fifth MCD line is also projected, which is promised to be finished by 2028. It will connect the south (Domodedovo) and the north (Pushkino).

3) Moscow Monorail

Moscow Monorail (highlighted above) and Light metro (bottom)

Look for the only monorail line in Russia to the north from the center of Moscow. It’s not just a surface line, it’s an elevated line that stands on piles. It’s a short line (13) that operates in an excursion mode – from it, you can get a beautiful view of the Ostankino TV Tower, for example.

Once per half an hour, the train runs from Timiryazevskaya Station (which is near the station of the same name on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya (9) line, which is the gray metro line) to Ulitsa Sergeya Eisensteina Station, which is located next to the entrance to the VDNKh park and to the VDNKh metro station of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya (6) metro line.

4) Light metro

Butovskaya (12) line in the south of Moscow runs from Buninskaya Alleya Station to Bitsevsky Park Station; from it, you can make a transfer to the gray Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya (9) line and the orange Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya (6) line. This line runs mostly on the surface, entering a tunnel, but is considered a part of the subway (hence, this line is marked with a solid line as other metro lines).

A useful piece of advice

The Moscow Metro website has an interactive map with all metro lines, MCC, and diameters. With it, you can build a route from the departure station to the destination station, take a look at all travel options and where you can make necessary transfers.

How to pay the fare

The convenience of the Moscow transportation system is that you only need the Troika card for travel with any type of public transport, be it the metro, suburban trains, or buses/trams. You can purchase it in ticket offices or from machines at stations. Also in souvenir shops and in the metro internet store you can purchase keychains, bracelets, and rings that work like a Troika card, as well as Troika cards with a unique and custom design.

Troika design dedicated to the 875th anniversary of Moscow

You can top up your card by simply adding a particular amount of money – or purchase the Unified ticket for 60 travels or unified unlimited ticket for 1/3/30/90/365 days.

The deposit price of the Troika card is 80 rubles, and you can get it back when returning the card to the ticket office. The validity period of the card is 5 years, so you can save it for future travels.

One MCC, MCD (in the city center), and metro trip costs 54 rubles. Transfers in the metro, MCC, or between diameters are free within 90 minutes. The fare on MCD in the suburbs costs 71 rubles.

Important: you need to pay the fare in the metro and MCC only upon entrance. On diameters, you need to activate trips upon entrance and then tap your card again at the turnstile upon exiting.

Also almost every station has a terminal where you can pay your fare, tapping your bank card.

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