Moscow Metro

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:
 Name Number Linecompletion Newest stationadded Length Stations Sokolnicheskaya 20px 1935 2019 44.1 km26 Zamoskvoretskaya 20px 1938 201842.8 km24 Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya 20px 1938 201245.1 km22 Filyovskaya 20px 1958 200614.9 km13 Koltsevaya 20px 1950 195419.4 km12 Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya 20px 1958 199037.6 km24 Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya 20px 1966 201542.2 km23 Kalininskaya 20px 1979 201419.7 km10 Solntsevskaya 20px 2014 202024.9 km12 Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya  20px 1983 202341.5 km25 Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya 20px 1995 202328.0 km17Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line 20px 2018 2023~11 km6 Butovskaya 20px 2003 201410.0 km7 Monorail 20px 2004 2004 CLOSED 6 Moscow Central Circle 20px 2016 2016 54 km 31 Nekrasovskaya 20px 2019 2020 TBD km 10 Troitskaya  2025 2025 ??? km ??? Total:325.4 km194

 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 .
Passengers2603.2 million passengers— paid a trip1958.6 million passengersAverage number of passengers per day7132.1 thousand passengersRevenue from fares15997.4 million rublesNetwork length320.9 kmNumber of lines12Longest lineArbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line (43.7 km)Shortest lineKakhovskaya Line (3.3 km)Longest sectionKrylatskoe–Strogino (6.625 km)Shortest sectionDelovoy Tsentr–Mezhdunarodnaya (502 m)Number of stations192— transfer stations61— transfer points26— surface/elevated15Deepest stationPark Pobedy (84 m)Most shallow underground stationPechatnikiStation with the longest platformVorobyevy Gory (282 m)Number of stations with a single entrance70Total number of entrances273Number of turnstiles2545Number of escalators681— including Monorail stations18Total length of all escalators67.4 kmNumber of depots15Total number of train runs per day10072Average speed: — commercial41.57 km/h— technical48.85 km/hTotal number of cars (average per day)4545Cars in service (average per day)3565Total run of cars733.6 million car-kilometers— with passengers699.2 million car-kilometersAverage run of cars per day562.3 car-kilometersAverage passengers per car48 peopleLongest escalator126 m (Park Pobedy)Total number of ventilation shafts406Number of local ventilation systems in use5551Number of medical assistance points46Total number of employees37401 people— males19936 people— females17465 peopleTimetable fulfillment99.98 %Minimum average interval90 secAverage passenger trip13.0 km

 Expansion plans 

 2014 
 Spartak
 Troparyovo
 Kotelniki

 Other websites 

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