Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Transport in Moscow: Tramvai (Streetcar)

Two buildings away from our apartment building run streetcar tracks, along which run 3 recently restored or reassigned tramvai routes.  So this is a typical streetcar in Moscow.  Some are older, some newer, but all work on this basic design. What looks like spider legs coming out of the roof connect to the electrical wires hanging above the track, which powers the tramvai.  


This shows the door which one enters.  The closed inner door is to the driver's seat.  There is a tiny hand hole to reach in cash to buy a ticket if you are desperate, but they really discourage buying from the driver.  To speed up boarding the tramvai, you are expected to buy tickets at ticket booths and automatic machines which are mostly at major intersections.  Then once you board the tramvai, to move into the main cabin, you slide your mag stripe ticket or swipe your electronic card at an automatic reader, which opens for one person an otherwise closed turnstile.

In general, we find tramvais very convenient to our house, each line runs not more than 10 minute intervals, so with even a couple of options you know you never wait long.

Major drawback to tramvai riding.  Look at this (stranger) getting off the tramvai:


Notice how steep the steps are?  There are only three steps to get up or down a platform about chest height.  This means the steps are very steep.  The first step is higher than K's waist.  Try lifting up an umbrella stroller with a child in it up to your chest.  Only A can lift the double stroller into the tramvai. 

3 comments:

  1. It's not that different than Boston's green line! except that it is a rare occurance for any green line trains to arrive within 10 minutes of each other.....

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  2. do they have app's yet for tracking the transit system? that's been a lovely improvement here, the bus/subway predictors are usually pretty accurate. (the green line, however, continues to elude tracking systems for some reason...)

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  3. There is a great app for the metro, though it doesn't track actual trains, but gives precise time between any two stations in the subway system, and since trains come every 1-2 minutes (seriously!) you can know precisely when you will end up at the destination station. (this doesn't account for walking time after leaving the station) But if there is one thing Russia has a lot of besides oil and trees, it is computer programmers, so for anything a 20-something might want, yeah, there's an app for that.

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