The Moscow Metro is a metro system which reaches nearly every part of the city of Moscow in Russia. It is one of the most heavily used metro systems in the world. It is also famous for its stations, which are heavily decorated with paintings.

In total the metro is 314 kilometres long and has 214 stations (including 1 temporarily closed).  During the day about 7.2 million passengers use the metro. As in many subway systems every line has its own colour, name and number. In total there are 14 lines. 
The metro runs from 5:30 AM to 1:00 AM. In peak hours trains run every 90 seconds, in the rest of the day every 3–4 minutes and in the evening every 6–10 minutes.  The metro does not publish a timetable, because the trains run at short intervals.  Part of Filevskaya line (4) has a timetable because there are two lines there - new line to Mezhdunarodnaya and old line to Fili.

History 
The first stations were opened 1935, May 15th. There were routes from Sokolniki to Park kultury and to Smolenskaya.
First the Moscow metro had name after Lazar Kaganovich who was the had of Moscow Committee of All-Union communist party. In 1957 he was exiled from the party, and the Moscow metro became be named after V. I. Lenin.
During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union some stations were used as shelters against bombs.

Lines 
The Moscow Metro has 16 lines, consisting of 14 normal lines and one light line and one U-railway. Here is a short overview of the lines:

Tickets 
There are tickets for a certain number of rides and tickets for a certain time.

The moscow metro uses magnetic cards for tickets with a certain number of rides: 1,2,5,10,20 and 60. These tickets were first sold in 1993 as a test. All other tickets are Transport Cards (Smartcards). There are two kinds of smartcards, 'unlimited' and 'social'. Both kinds of cards can be used for 30, 90 or 1 year. Social cards are free for senior citizens and reduced for students.

Interesting Facts 

The metro has a gauge of 1520 mm, like most Russian railways. It gets the electricity from a third rail. The metro is run on a voltage of 825V AC. The average distance between stations is 1800 m. The shortest is 300m between the stations Alexandrovskiy Sad and Arbatskaya. The longest distance between stations is 6627 m between Krylatskoe and Strogino. The long distance helps trains travelling faster and more efficient.

Most platforms are at least 155 m long. They can take trains which have 8 cars. The only exceptions are some stations on Filyovskaya Line which can only take 6-car trains. These stations are: 
 Delovoy centr
 Studentcheskaya
 Kutuzovskaya
 Fili
 Bagrationovskaya
 Filyovskiy Park and Pionerskaya

Trains on lines 2, 6, 7 and 9 have eight cars, on lines 3, 8, 10 seven cars and on lines 4, 5 and 11 six cars.

Line 12 is different from all other lines. Its platforms are much shorter than the normal platforms. They are only 96 m longs. It has newer trains than the other line.

The metro has 214 stations. 71 of them are deep under the ground, 87 are just under the ground. There are also 10 stations above the ground and 3 on bridges.

On trains to the city there is a male announcer, on trains from the city there is a female announcer. (The boss calls you to work, the wife calls you home).

One of the stations - Vorobievy Gory is situated at the bridge and has a great view at the Moscow river. Also this station is the longest at Moscow.

Metro 2 
Although this has not been officially said, many independent studies say that there is a second, deeper metro system designed for emergency evacuation of important city personnel in case of attack. It is believed that it consists of a single track and connects the Kremlin, chief HQ (Genshtab), Lubyanka (FSB Headquarters) and the Ministry of Defence, as well as numerous other secret installations. There are also entrances to the system from several civilian buildings such as the Russian State Library, Moscow State University (MSU) and at least two stations of the regular metro.[citation needed] It is speculated that these would allow for the evacuation of a small number of randomly chosen civilians, in addition to most of the elite military personnel. The only known junction between the secret system and normal Metro is behind the station Sportivnaya of the Sokolnicheskaya Line.

Statistics 
Latest numbers from official site .

Expansion plans

2014 
 Spartak
 Troparyovo
 Kotelniki

Other websites 

 Official Website 
 Metro.ru  — Information, history, maps, art