My morning commute consists of a 10 minute walk to the Teatralnya Metro station, a ride on said Metro (Green line), exiting at the second stop (Paveletskaya) and another 10 minute walk to the office - just about 30 minutes door to door. Not a bad commute and only slightly longer than my commute in Germany. But I suspect that if I tried to drive to the office, even though it's not very far from home, it would take significantly longer.Some of the partners I have spoken with here can't believe that I would take the Metro. Now it turns out that most of these partners either are Russian and live quite a ways outside of town and have a nice ride or, in the case of at least one, has his own driver (clearly the Russian partners make more than we do in the US!). I'm a BIG fan of rail transit, stemming back to taking the commuter rail when I lived in the suburbs of Chicago, to the Amtrak Hiawatha between Milwaukee and Chicago (one of the few profitable Amtrak routes, I might add), to the subway in Chicago or New York, and most assuredly the incredible local and high speed rail in Germany. But when they said this before I had experience with the Moscow Metro I was a bit concerned. The concern was, of course, entirely needless. It's certainly different than in Germany, to be sure, but with a few modifications in my perspective and behavior, I have become a big fan.
I decided to try the system one weekend when I was still staying at the Swissotel. You know, to see how bad it might really be, but doing so during a weekend where hopefully there would be fewer users and it would be easier to figure things out. I asked the concierge at the hotel about the Metro and how I could buy a ticket. He paused and asked if I'd like him to arrange a car service or taxi. This didn't inspire much confidence in the Metro, but I declined the offer. He then said it might be helpful to write the request in Russian, so he wrote something on a piece of paper that apparently I was supposed to provide to the cashier. (Alas, no kiosks where I could buy a ticket.) He estimated that I could get a 10-ride for "around 300 Rubles."
I will admit that when I slid this note under the glass at the cashier's desk I felt a bit like a bank robber and wondered if the cashier on the other side might feel the same way. She looked at it, then at me with a raised eyebrow. But she took the 500 Ruble note I had offered, did some typing on her keyboard, and slipped my change and a thick paper card back into the slot - along with my note.
It turns out that the 10-ride costs RUB 265, which is a little less than $9. There is apparently some kind of electronic chip or something inside as you place it on a pad at the entry locations to the subway which authenticates entry and displays the number of remaining rides on the ticket. The entry locations are gates or turnstiles without a gate or turnstile. During rush hour, there is an employee on the other side of the "gates" who can see whether the passenger's entrance has been authorized, though this type of resource is not necessarily present during off-hours. So far, I have not yet been asked to show my ticket on the train itself.
Each ride is good for the entire system, rather than on a zone system which I always think is overly complicated. The system consists of a ring line that reflects the ring orientation of the city, and then other lines that spring out from it. The stations are much further apart than I am used to within either Chicago or Germany, so just a few stops can take you quite a long way. At the same time, it requires you to plan ahead on which station is closest to your destination as it could have a significant impact on how far you must then walk to your destination. Fortunately, many businesses indicate in their contact information the closest Metro station, which is quite helpful. This also tends to result in a lot of people boarding and exiting the train at each stop.
The trains operate very frequently - often nearly one per minute. The signs are generally in Cyrillic characters, so you need to plan your path in advance and know which way to go. For example, when I was first learning how to get to work, I knew that no matter whether I was coming or go, I should also choose to go towards the middle stations. That station, Novokuznetskaya, when printed in Cyrillic characters starts with what looks like Hobo, so I always have this visual of being a hobo (yes, with the stick and a pack of goodies in a red bandanna tied on the stick) going to work and I always have managed to get there.
There are clear unstated rules regarding the exit and entry process of the subways. Everyone on the outside clearly stands just to the side of the door until all people are out and then there is the mad dash to board. It can be crowded. There are long benches along the sides of the train with bars above them to grab on to, but no such bars in the main vestibules, so you either have to do a form of surfing or get in the midst of the aisle. Everyone seems to seat themselves with precisely the same distance so when a seat is available, you "fit." It's quite amazing. During the trip, of course, like on pretty many other subways, you studiously avoid looking at others.
When you exit the subway, the real fun begins, especially during rush hour. There are generally (at least at my two primary Metro stations) three escalators and they reverse the direction of the center escalator during rush hour to attempt to smooth the traffic flow. Attempt. But it is not enough. What happens is that as soon as the doors of the trains open, a ton of people emerge and all head towards the escalators. And you have trains running in both directions that are emptying onto the same platform, so if you are exiting and hear another train approaching from the other side, you start double-timing.
Think of a boa constrictor to get the visual here of a lot of people and only two escalator lines. There is a mass of people. They don't really queue per se, but nor is there actual pushing. Rather, it is a display more aggressive pedestrian skills than what I have (though I am working on that) coupled with an the absolute refusal to acknowledge the existence of those around you. Despite a quasi-queue, people still walk right up to the front and weasel their ways in. No looks to the others, no "excuse me's" or anything like that. They just butt in and everyone continues. The line does move, so it amuses me to no end that these people just HAVE to get about 10 people ahead of where they would have been otherwise. The other interesting thing is that there is nearly perfectly even spacing once on the escalator - despite the aggressiveness in entering the escalator, everyone seems careful to leave an empty stair between the person in front. And everyone moves to the right. It is truly fascinating.
At the top of the stairs, there is another need for aggressive pedestrian skills, often driving by other streams of incoming passengers from other lines (both stations also connect with another line of the subway) and everyone trying to exit through the same gates. Same types of "I'm not acknowledging you exist" tactics as everyone presses ahead. Somehow this is all done with minimal body contact, which I fine mildly reassuring. That said, one's "personal bubble" becomes quite small in all aspects of the subway.
One other thing about the subway is that some of the stations are really quite ornate inside. I might try to take some pictures of them at some point in time, but even the kind of "plain" station that I have included above (Paveletskaya) is still much prettier than many US or German subway stations I have experienced.
Overall, a great and efficient means of transportation at a low price. Highly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment