Moscow Monorail

A few months ago the Sydney monorail was dismantled. Having grown up in Sydney, I was always in two minds about that monorail. Obscuring some of the city's beautiful building facades at first floor level with a length of thick steel girder never seemed a very good idea to me. It also didn't serve any serious mass transit purpose - it was basically just a toy. And expensive to ride. So I'm sort of glad it's gone, though I will miss the occasional enjoyable jaunt on it around Darling Harbour.

The Moscow monorail was completed in 2004 and there is no danger of it obscuring any beautiful building facades. It is located about 8 kilometres north of Red Square in an area of apartment blocks, roads and parks.

Monorail view near Timirazevskaya.
Not much chance of people like me complaining about the track ruining the architectural ambiance out here.

The line is 4.7 kilometres long and links the grey Metro line (9) at Timirazevskaya (which I think of as Timmy-skaya) with VKND on the yellow line (6). So it serves some useful transportation purpose, though I suspect many of the people riding it are still just having a jaunt.

The monorail is integrated in to the urban transit ticketing system, so a regular ticket covers the journey (the public transportation ticketing system is something Moscow does seem to have got right).

Moscow monorail coming in to VDNK station

The monorail can be included as part of a fun day out. Catch the Metro to Timirazevskaya. Then catch the monorail (which goes right past Ostrankino Tower). Get off at VDNK (the monorail goes on one more stop). Visit the Cosmonaut Museum (see my last post) and have a wander around the VDNK Exhibition Park (see next post). End the day by catching the metro at VDNK metro station.

Sergeya Eisensteina Ulitsa station at the eastern end of the line. The train is just completing a small loop at the end of the track to commence its return run.

Monorail carriage interior

Telesenter monorail station. More utilitarian than attractive. As the station name suggests, there is a large television broadcasting station nearby (the gray building just visible in the background)

An Inter-city train experience

Friends have asked whether we intend taking the Trans-Siberian railway while we are here.

No – absolutely not.

 

I started pacing the deck after one day into a 4 day ferry trip up the Patagonian coast of Chile. So I know that watching trees go past from a railway compartment is not going to keep me amused for more than half a day.

But if that wasn’t enough, I just saw a couple of friends off on their 4 day trip to Irkutsk, and that experience was enough to completely sour me on Russian railways. 

They had made their booking through a travel agent and a couple of days ago we picked up the tickets from an office in the suburbs. That took about half a day and if I hadn’t been there to help them I have no idea how they would have found the place.

Okay, so now they had these PDF printouts with all the travel details, bar coded etc. Looked like tickets to us. We then invested some further time visiting the station (there are a lot of railway stations in Moscow) – a bit of sensible prior reconnaissance.

This morning we turned up. Usual railway station chaos. Almost nothing in English – the railways here have yet to grasp that most international travelers rely on English as a lingua franca – and the departure platform of the train only came up on the board about 30 minutes before it was due to leave. 

Kievsky station (which is much nicer than the one my friends left from)

 So then we waited on the platform outside the designated carriage until the door was opened, then showed the ‘tickets’ and passports to the carriage attendant. She refused my friends entry and babbled away beyond the coping capacity of my basic Russian language skills. Fortunately a young English-speaking Russian was standing nearby who advised us that these ‘tickets’ needed to be exchanged for ‘real’ tickets back at the station ticket office (there was no advice about this requirement on the PDF printouts). 

With 20 minutes to go we sought assistance at the ticket office – again, no English was available – again, we were fortunately rescued by an English-speaking Russian who was passing by, a young woman, who showed us how to operate a ticketing machine (which had, of course, no English-language option) to extract glossy little ‘official’ tickets. How these tickets were in any way better than the computer printouts I have no idea – particularly as we had to use the printouts to obtain these new tickets . I mean, for heaven’s sake, I print boarding passes for aircraft from my home computer all the time.

With just 10 minutes to go, my two friends managed to board the train. I had a look at their compartment. They had purchased exclusive use of a four-berth cabin. Just as well. It was basic and would be cramped - even for two. Had it been a prison cell, the inmates would have been justified about complaining of inhumane treatment.

Afterwards I went shopping to de-stress. I never thought I would find dodging shopping trolleys in the chaotic aisles of an Ashan supermarket so relaxing. 

My advice for anyone thinking of travelling by train in Russia – fly. 

(I will make one exception - the fast train between St Petersburg and Moscow, the Sapsan, is worth the effort)

Pedestrian crossings

In 2009 the first global conference on road safety was held in Moscow. This is a little ironic considering Russia has the worst road accident statistics in Europe. Figures from the World Health Organisation show that Russia has 55.3 deaths per 100,000 vehicles per year. For comparison, Australia has 8 and Iceland 5. Even the excitable Italian drivers can only manage 12. 

Pedestrians often fall victim to this motorised bedlam. Crossing the road is particularly hazardous (see the 16 Sept entry 'our lives in our hands' at http://diaryinvisible.wordpress.com/ for a tragic eye witness account). Major multi-lane roads in Moscow will generally have pedestrian underpasses (perehods). The only way to cross most roads, though, is by pedestrian crossing.

Moscow drivers will not stop if they see you waiting on the side of the road. You actually have to take the plunge and start the crossing, ensuring you are not so committed that you can’t retreat in a hurry. Most drivers will then stop - reluctantly. The problem is, you can’t be sure they are going to stop – some will deliberately swerve around you; be absorbed in a mobile phone conversation; are drunk; or may simply be incompetent behind the wheel (it is not uncommon for people bribe their way to a licence or obtain forgeries - http://rt.com/news/corrupted-driving-education-accidents/). 

Matters are not helped by the chaotic parking, with many drivers blocking the pedestrian crossings with their vehicles. I don’t know if it is illegal to park on pedestrian crossings in Moscow – after all, they park all over the footpath. I get the impression it’s OK to park anywhere that isn’t blocked off by bollards. 

Park wherever you like, even on pedestrian crossings, along Moscow's main commercial boulevard, Tverskaya Ulitsa. If it wasn't for the bollards, they'd be on the footpath, too.

 I doubt the traffic police would have the time to do anything about this madness even if they had the inclination. People involved in any accident are required to wait with their vehicle and not move anything until the traffic police inspect the scene. I spoke to someone whose husband was rear-ended going to work and he had to wait 4 hours. There have been two accidents at intersections in our street over the past few weeks, and those vehicles were there for hours, blocking the intersection so that cars had to mount the footpath to get around them. 

Given the high accident rate in Russia, I’m therefore not surprised that giving out parking tickets (if such things exist) is a low priority. 

Pedestrian crossings in Moscow are hazardous enough already without having to negotiate this.

Who gives a rats, I'll just park where I want.

Trams

One of the reasons I love Melbourne is the trams. So I was pleased to find Moscow also has plenty of carriages rattling along its streets.

I have, though, got into the habit of using the Metro (underground rail) in Moscow and only recently hopped on to a tram. It was wonderful to see something other than dark tunnel walls screeching by. 

Apart from the Metro (and taxis), there are three main public transport options in Moscow – trams, trolleybuses and buses. The same ticket works on all three (though not on the Metro, which has a separate ticketing system). Tickets can be purchased at kiosks as shown in the photo below. The kiosks are quite common, especially near transport hubs. I usually buy a ticket for 10 trips, which costs 195 roubles (about $6).

And this is how it’s done:

Just go to the ticket office window, say 10 in Russian (pronounced de-yea-sit) and plonk 200 roubles on the little counter. The person in the kiosk won’t be the slightest bit interested in engaging in conversation, nor will they give a rat’s how good or bad your Russian is, as long as you can intelligibly say 10 (or just show them ten fingers). In return you’ll be given a blue ticket and 5 roubles change. 

When you get on the tram/bus/trolleybus you’ll be confronted with a turnstile and a yellow ticket machine. Put the ticket into the slot in the yellow machine with the arrow facing forwards and the blank (not the blue) side of the ticket facing up. The machine will validate the ticket and the turnstile light will show green. Grab your validated ticket and enter. That’s all there is to it.

Today we took a long trip across the northern suburbs of Moscow, from near Crocus City to Izmaylovsky Park. My intention had been to use 4 tram routes, plus one short trolleybus journey. Unfortunately, one of the tram routes was not operating and we had to take a bus and trolleybus to bridge the gap.

I’ll outline the journey, as if you are in Moscow on an extended stay and have a spare day, it’s a pleasant outing. I suggest, though, that you pick up a copy of the public transport guide (cover below) beforehand and take a decent map or street directory. People who are not interested in a tram ride across northern Moscow may now prefer to check out something interesting on You Tube.

Moscow public transport guide

 Take the Metro to Strogino (СТРОГИНО) on the dark blue line (3), to the northwest of the city. This, by the way, is one stop short of the metro station for the major shopping and entertainment complex of Crocus City (metro stop МЯКИНИНО), which I’ll write about another time. A short walk away is the tram line. Catch the number 30. This is an enjoyable ride, which includes a scenic crossing of the Moscow River and terminates at Voykovskaya (ВОЙКОЛСКАЯ), where there is a large, very modern shopping mall called Metropolis (where I usually do my grocery shopping). 

From here, take the 27 tram which terminates at Dmitrovskaya (ДМИТРОВСКАЯ). Follow the other alighting passengers, as the route to the metro station isn’t immediately obvious. On the way you will pass through a great covered passage with market stalls. These two trams rides would probably be enough for an enjoyable morning – if so, catch the metro home from here. 

However, if you are determined to traverse northern Moscow above ground, as we were, you will need to catch the number 3 trolleybus along ШОССЕ БYТЫРСКАЯ to Mendeleevskaya (МЕНДЕЛЕЕВСКАЯ) metro station. Here you can join the 7 tram to Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad metro station (ПРЕОБРАЖЕНСКАЯ ПЛОЩАДь – try saying that after a couple of vodkas) and change to the number 11 tram, which will take you to journey’s end at Izmaylovskaya Park. 

Unfortunately the number 7 tram was not running today, which messed up our planning a tad. That’s why I recommend taking the public transport guide and a decent map – in case contingency planning is required. Otherwise, there is always a Metro station somewhere nearby. 

Inside a Moscow tram

The tram terminus at Voykovskaya

View of the Moscow River from the number 30 tram

Aeroflot

I grew up in the Cold War.

If one ignores the constant threat of nuclear annihilation, things were much simpler then. There was us in the West (the Good Guys) and them in the East (the Bad Guys). I suppose if one lived in Moscow there was us in the East (the Good Guys) and them in the West (the Bad Guys). That’s pretty straightforward and easy to understand as far as international politics goes.

Of course, us in the West took great delight in ridiculing anything to do with them in the East. That we knew almost nothing at all about what we were ridiculing didn’t matter in the slightest. 

The Russian national airline, Aeroflot (Air Fleet) was always a fine target. Perhaps in part because the name of the airline was just so easy to joke around with – ‘Aeroflop’. We would imagine worn-out aircraft with wooden benches; cranky, dumpy flight attendants tossing miserable passengers a boiled potato; pre-flight safety instructions consisting of ‘shut up and keep still’; together with a 50% chance or less of actually arriving at the destination.

With that sort of mental baggage, I was apprehensive about my first Aeroflot flight. In fact, I hadn’t actually seen an Aeroflot plane until we came to Moscow. They don’t venture any closer to Australia than Bangkok. 

For those of my Australian readers who have never seen an Aeroflot plane, this is what one looks like.

 Having now flown with the airline several times since arriving in Moscow, I can assure anyone who may be considering or concerned about flying with Aeroflot that it is a perfectly good modern airline, no different to flying with any other air passenger service. It runs modern Airbuses, the staff are generally courteous (some of the check-in staff still have a little to learn about customer service, though the flight attendants are always nice); the interior decor of the aircraft is a pleasant dark blue (no, not red!), and it meets modern safety standards – which is a hell of a lot safer than being on the roads.

Car parking

I am surprised at how little snow there has been. A light dusting yesterday is all that has fallen for days. The weather can be quite changeable, like Melbourne. After yesterdays' brief snow shower, the afternoon was fairly sunny, though cold. Ideal for a stroll in the forest at Ismaylovski. 

I have come to the conclusion that the average Russian driver does not believe there are any footpaths in Moscow. There are, however, plenty of slightly elevated parking spaces along the roads. 

In places along Tverskaya there is often barely enough room for a couple of walkers to pass between buildings and filthy cars. After it rains, I have seen pedestrians walking through puddles because of vehicles parked on the dry sections of paving. 

Along some of the smaller back streets I have sometimes had to walk on the road because the footpath is choked with parked vehicles. I’ve also had to dodge cars driving along the footpath looking for somewhere to park.

There's a footpath here - somewhere. Pedestrians are sometimes forced to walk on the road into on-coming traffic because of parked cars.

 Even in Buenos Aires, a city of comparable size where I recently stayed for a couple of months, this sort of behaviour by motorists is not tolerated. One would think that the lively Latin temperament would revel in disorderly parking, but I regularly saw cars towed away for disobeying parking signs near my apartment. And they weren’t even parked on the footpath.

Car being towed away for illegal parking outside my apartment in Buenos Aires. Not something I ever expect to see in Moscow. The motor cycles on the footpath were also removed.

The only deterrent to this activity, apart from lamp posts and bus shelters, are bollards. These have been installed, I assume, by business owners trying to prevent vehicles from using the footpath outside their premises as a parking lot. 

Double row of bollards outside the Intercontinental Hotel on Tverskaya to prevent cars parking on the footpath. The red building in the background is the Museum of Modern History.

I can’t see any evidence that the city authorities do anything about this practice. In fact, there are parking spaces painted on the sidewalk in places, which only offers encouragement.

Parking spaces painted on the footpath in Tverskaya.

In fairness, there are some great places for walking in Moscow – for example, the wonderful pedestrian mall at Old Arbat. But getting around much of the city on foot can be a real challenge.

I have heard comparisons of Tverskaya with the world’s other great boulevards, such as the Champs-Elysees and Oxford Street. A more fitting comparison might be with a used car lot.

Its hard to take comparisons of Tverskaya with the world's other great boulevards seriously all the time cars are parked on the footpath.