Metro

The Moscow Metro system is famous for its art, murals, mosaics, and ornate chandeliers. It started operation in 1935 and immediately became the centrepiece of the transportation system. More than that it was a Stalinist device to awe and reward the populace, and give them an appreciation of Soviet realist art. It became the prototype for future Soviet large-scale technologies. Lazar Kaganovich was in charge; he designed the subway so that citizens would absorb the values and ethos of Stalinist civilisation as they rode. The artwork of the 13 original stations became nationally and internationally famous. For example, the Sverdlov Square subway station featured porcelain bas-reliefs depicting the daily life of the Soviet peoples, and the bas-reliefs at the Dynamo Stadium sports complex glorified sports and the physical prowess of the powerful new "Homo Sovieticus" (Soviet man).^[202]

The metro was touted as the symbol of the new social order—a sort of Communist cathedral of engineering modernity.^[203] Soviet workers did the labour and the artwork, but the main engineering designs, routes, and construction plans were handled by specialists recruited from the London Underground. The Britons called for tunneling instead of the "cut-and-cover" technique, the use of escalators instead of lifts, and designed the routes and the rolling stock.^[204] The paranoia of Stalin and the NKVD was evident when the secret police arrested numerous British engineers for espionage—that is for gaining an in-depth knowledge of the city's physical layout. Engineers for the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company were given a show trial and deported in 1933, ending the role of British business in the USSR.^[205]

Today, the Moscow Metro comprises twelve lines, mostly underground with a total of 203 stations. The Metro is one of the deepest subway systems in the world; for instance, the Park Pobedy station, completed in 2003, at 84 metres (276 ft) underground, has the longest escalators in Europe. The Moscow Metro is the busiest metro system in Europe, as well as one of the world's busiest metro systems, serving about ten million passengers daily (300,000,000 people every month).^[206] Facing serious transportation problems, Moscow has plans for expanding its Metro. In 2016, the authorities launched a new circle metro railway that contributed to solving transportation issues, namely daily congestion at Koltsevaya Line.^[207]

Due to the treatment of Metro stations as possible canvas for art, characterized by the fact that workers of Moscow would get to see them every day, many Stalin-era metro stations were built in different "custom" designs (where each station's design would be, initially, a massive installation on a certain theme. For example, Elektrozavodskaya station was themed solely after nearby lightbulb factory and ceramic ribbed lightbulb sockets);^[208] the tradition of "Grand Designs" and, basically, decorating metro stations as single-themed installations, was restored in late 1979.

More recently, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin has introduced comforts ranging from WiFi and USB ports and Apple Pay — while opening new stations at a breakneck pace. Moscow's metro is one of the world's busiest, handling 2.6 billion passengers in 2019.^[209]

In the Russian capital, there are over 21.5 thousand Wi-Fi access points, in student dormitories, in parks, cultural and sports institutions, and within the Garden Ring and the Third Transport Ring. From September 2020 to August 2021, 1,700 new access points to urban Wi-Fi were launched in Moscow.^[210] The structure of the Wi-Fi network allows citizens to use the Internet without re-authorization.^[211]

Monorail

The Moscow Metro operates a short monorail line (line 13). The line connects Timiryazevskaya metro station and Ulitsa Sergeya Eisensteina, passing close to VDNH (and Line 6 Metro station "V.D.N.Kh."). The line opened in 2004. It accepts overground interchanges, no additional fare is needed if a ride was spent at Moscow Metro within previous 90 minutes.

Bus, trolleybus and electric bus

As Metro stations outside the city center are far apart in comparison to other cities, up to 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), a bus network radiates from each station to the surrounding residential zones. Moscow has a bus terminal for long-range and intercity passenger buses (Central Bus Terminal) with a daily turnover of about 25 thousand passengers serving about 40% of long-range bus routes in Moscow.^[213]

Every major street in the city is served by at least one bus route. Many of these routes are doubled by a trolleybus route and have trolley wires over them.

With the total line length of almost 600 kilometres (370 miles) of a single wire, 8 depots, 104 routes, and 1740 vehicles, the Moscow trolleybus system was the largest in the world. But municipal authority, headed by Sergey Sobyanin, began to destroy the trolleybus system in Moscow in 2014 due the planned replacement of trolleybuses by electric buses. In 2018 Moscow trolleybus system has only 4 depots and dozens of kilometers of unused wires. Almost all trolleybus wires inside Garden Ring (Sadovoe Koltso) were cut in 2016–2017 due to the reconstruction of central streets ("Moya Ulitsa"). Opened on November 15, 1933, it is also the world's 6th oldest operating trolleybus system.

In 2018 the vehicle companies Kamaz and GAZ have won the Mosgortrans tender for delivering 200 electric buses and 62 ultra-fast charging stations to the city transport system. The manufacturers will be responsible for the quality and reliable operation of the buses and charging stations for the next 15 years. The city will be procuring only electric buses as of 2021, replacing the diesel bus fleet gradually. According to expectations, Moscow will become the leader amongst the European cities in terms of electric and gas fuel share in public transport by 2019.^[214]

All bus stations and terminals of Moscow are now connected to free Wi-Fi. One may use it in international bus stations Salaryevo, South Gate and North Gate, and in bus terminals Varshavskaya and Orekhovo. As much as 48 hot spots were installed there.^[215]

Moscow cable car

On November 26, 2018, the mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin took part in the ceremony to open the cable car above the Moskva River. The cable car will connect the Luzhniki sports complex with Sparrow Hills and Kosygin Street.

The journey from the well-known viewpoint on Vorobyovy Gory to Luzhniki Stadium will last for five minutes instead of 20 minutes that one would have to spend on the same journey by car. The cable car will work every day from 11 a.m. till 11 p.m.

The cable car is 720 meters (2,360 ft) long. It was built to transport 1,600 passengers per hour in all weathers. There are 35 closed capsules designed by Porsche Design Studio to transport passengers. The booths are equipped with media screens, LED lights, hooks for bikes, skis, and snowboards. Passengers will also be able to use audio guides in English, German, Chinese and Russian.

Tram

Moscow has an extensive tram system, which first opened in 1899.^[216] The newest line was built in 1984. Its daily usage by Muscovites is low, making up for approximately 5% of trips because many vital connections in the network have been withdrawn. Trams still remain important in some districts as feeders to Metro stations. The trams also provide important cross-links between metro lines, for example between Universitet station of Sokolnicheskaya Line (#1 red line) and Profsoyuznaya station of Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (#6 orange line) or between Voykovskaya and Strogino. Some routes used to connect downtown with sleep districts, like route 3.

There are three tram networks in the city:

Krasnopresnenskoye depot network with the westernmost point at Strogino (depot location) and the easternmost point near platform Dmitrovskaya. This network became separated in 1973, but until 1997 it could easily have been reconnected by about one kilometre (fifty chains) of track and three switches. The network has the highest usage in Moscow and no weak points based on turnover except to-depot lane (passengers serviced by bus) and tram ring at Dmitrovskaya (because now it is neither a normal transfer point nor a repair terminal).
The Apakov depot services the south-western part from the Varshavsky lane – Simferopolsky boulevard in the east to the Universitet station in the west and Boulevard lane at the center. This network is connected only by the four-way Dubininskaya and Kozhevnicheskaya streets. A second connection by Vostochnaya (Eastern) street was withdrawn in 1987 due to a fire at the Dinamo plant and has not been recovered, and remains lost (Avtozavodsky bridge) at 1992. The network may be serviced anyway by another depot (now route 35, 38).
Main three depot networks with railway gate and tram-repair plant.

In addition, tram advocates have suggested that the new rapid transit services (metro to City, Butovo light metro, Monorail) would be more effective as at-grade tram lines and that the problems with trams are only due to poor management and operation, not the technical properties of trams. New tram models have been developed for the Moscow network despite the lack of expansion.

Taxi

Commercial taxi services and route taxis are in widespread use. In the mid-2010s, service platforms such as Yandex.Taxi, Uber and Gett displaced many private drivers and small service providers and were in 2015 servicing more than 50% of all taxi orders in Moscow.^[217]^[218]

Russian tech firm Yandex is testing self-driving taxis in Moscow. Yandex's fleet of around 170 driverless cars has travelled more than 14 million kilometres. Robotaxis will available through the company's Yandex.Go application in Yasenevo district.^[219]

Railway

Several train stations serve the city. Moscow's ten rail terminals (or vokzals) are:

Thumb — The high-speed Sapsan train links Moscow with Saint Petersburg.

The terminals are located close to the city center, along with the metro ringline 5 or close to it, and connect to a metro line to the centre of town. Each station handles trains from different parts of Europe and Asia.^[220] There are many smaller railway stations in Moscow. As train tickets are cheap, they are the preferred mode of travel for Russians, especially when departing to Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city. Moscow is the western terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which traverses nearly 9,300 kilometres (5,800 mi) of Russian territory to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast.

Suburbs and satellite cities are connected by commuter elektrichka (electric rail) network. Elektrichkas depart from each of these terminals to the nearby (up to 140 km or 87 mi) large railway stations.

During the 2010s, the Little Ring of the Moscow Railway was converted to be used for frequent passenger service; it is fully integrated with Moscow Metro; the passenger service started on September 10, 2016. A connecting railway line on the North side of the town connects Belorussky terminal with other railway lines. This is used by some suburban trains.

Moscow Central Circle

The Moskovskaya Okruzhnaya Zheleznaya Doroga formed a ring around the now-downtown Moscow since 1903, but only served as a non-electrified, fueled locomotive-only railway prior to reconstruction into MCC in 2010's.

The Moscow Central Circle is a 54-kilometre-long (34 mi) urban-metro railway orbital line that encircles historical Moscow. It was built alongside Little Ring of the Moscow Railway, taking some of its tracks into itself as well. M.C.C. was opened for passenger use on September 10, 2016. MOZD is integrated as "Line 14 of Moscow Metro", and, while using railway-sized trains, can be perceived as "S-train-design circle line".

The line is operated by the Moscow Government owned company MKZD through the Moscow Metro, with the Federal Government owned Russian Railways selected as the operation subcontractor. The track infrastructure and most platforms are owned by Russian Railways, while MKZD owns most station buildings. However, in S-bahn way, Moscow unified tickets "Ediniiy" and "Troika" are accepted by MCC stations. There is one zero-fee interchange for any ticket used on Moscow Metro station less than 90 minutes before entering an MCC station (and vice versa: a passenger of MCC gets 1 free interchange to Moscow Metro within 90 minutes after entering MCC station)

Moscow Central Diameters

Another system, which forms "genuine S-Bahn" as in "suburbia-city-suburbia"-designed railway, is the Moscow Central Diameters, a pass-through railways system, created by constructing bypasses from "vokzals" final stations (e.g. by avoiding the central stations of already existing Moscow Railway, used for both intercity and urban-suburban travel before)^[221] and forming a train line across Moscow's centre.

Out of 5 projected lines, the first 2 lines were completed and launched on 2019-11-21 (e.g. November 21, 2019).

While using the same rails as "regular" suburban trains to vokzals, MCD trains ("Ivolga" model) got distinguishing features (shape; red cabin, different windows, lesser amount of seats; big red "MЦΔ" train logo).

Roads

There are over 2.6 million cars in the city daily. Recent years have seen growth in the number of cars, which have caused traffic jams and lack of parking space to become major problems.

The Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), along with the Third Transport Ring and the canceled Fourth Transport Ring, is one of only three freeways that run within Moscow city limits. Several other roadway systems form concentric circles around the city.

Air

There are five primary commercial airports serving Moscow: Sheremetyevo (SVO), Domodedovo (DME), Vnukovo (VKO), Zhukovsky (ZIA), Ostafyevo (OSF).

Sheremetyevo International Airport is the most globally connected of Moscow's airports, handling 60% of all international flights.^[222] It is also a home to all SkyTeam members, and the main hub for Aeroflot (itself a member of SkyTeam). Domodedovo International Airport is the leading airport in Russia in terms of passenger throughput and is the primary gateway to long-haul domestic and CIS destinations and its international traffic rivals Sheremetyevo. It is a hub for S7 airlines, and most of OneWorld and Star Alliance members use Domodedovo as their international hub. Vnukovo International Airport handles flights of Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and others. Ostafyevo International Airport caters primarily to business aviation.

Moscow's airports vary in distances from the MKAD beltway: Domodedovo is the farthest at 22 km (14 mi); Vnukovo is 11 km (7 mi); Sheremetyevo is 10 km (6 mi); and Ostafievo, the nearest, is about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from MKAD.^[222]

There are a number of smaller airports close to Moscow (19 in Moscow Oblast) such as Myachkovo Airport, that are intended for private aircraft, helicopters and charters.^[223]

Water

Moscow has two passenger terminals, (South River Terminal and North River Terminal or Rechnoy vokzal), on the river and regular ship routes and cruises along the Moskva and Oka rivers, which are used mostly for entertainment. The North River Terminal, built in 1937, is the main hub for long-range river routes. There are three freight ports serving Moscow.

Sharing system

Moscow has different vehicle sharing options that are sponsored by the local government. There are several car sharing companies which are in charge of providing cars to the population. To drive the automobiles, the user has to book them through the app of the owning company. In 2018 the mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Moscow's car sharing system has become the biggest in Europe in terms of vehicle fleet.^[225] Every day about 25,000 people use this service. In the end of the same year Moscow carsharing became the second in the world in therms of fleet with 16.5K available vehicles.^[226] Another sharing system is bike sharing (Velobike) of a fleet formed by 3000 traditional and electrical bicycles.^[227] The Delisamokat is a new sharing service that provides electrical scooters.^[228] There are companies that provide different vehicles to the population in proximity to Moscow's big parks.

Future development

In 1992, the Moscow government began planning a projected new part of central Moscow, the Moscow International Business Center, with the goal of creating a zone, the first in Russia, and in all of Eastern Europe,^[231] that will combine business activity, living space and entertainment. Situated in Presnensky District and located at the Third Ring, the Moscow City area is under intense development. The construction of the MIBC takes place on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. The whole project takes up to one square kilometre (250 acres). The area is the only spot in downtown Moscow that can accommodate a project of this magnitude. Today, most of the buildings there are old factories and industrial complexes.

The Federation Tower, completed in 2016, is the second-tallest building in Europe. It is planned to include a water park and other recreational facilities; business, office, entertainment, and residential buildings, a transport network and a new site for the Moscow government. The construction of four new metro stations in the territory has been completed, two of which have opened and two others are reserved for future metro lines crossing MIBC, some additional stations were planned.

A rail shuttle service, directly connecting MIBC with the Sheremetyevo International Airport is also planned.

Major thoroughfares through MIBC are the Third Ring and Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

Three metro stations were initially planned for the Filyovskaya Line. The station Delovoi Tsentr opened in 2005 and was later renamed Vystavochnaya in 2009. The branch extended to the Mezhdunarodnaya station in 2006, and all work on the third station, Dorogomilovskaya (between Kiyevskaya and Delovoi Tsentr), has been postponed. There are plans to extend the branch as far as the Savyolovskaya station, on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line. Line 4 of Moscow Metro had the longest time intervals between train arrivals (approximately 8 minutes for Mezhdunarodnaya and Vystavochnaya branch of line 4) throughout the 2010s. However, Vystavochnaya has been expanded with Line 8A platforms (segment of future Line 11), and Mezhdunarodnaya has been upgraded with line 14 platform.

The cellphone service provider MTS announced on March 5, 2021, that they would begin the country's first pilot 5G network in Moscow. 14 hotspots were positioned across the city's main tourist attractions, including Lubyanka Square near Red Square, the Moscow City financial district and the VDNKh exhibition center.^[232]