Perhaps if one item could rival the beautiful and numerous Churches in Moscow for being an internationally recognizable symbol of this Country, it would be the world class Metro (subway) system. The Moscow Metro is as close to perfect for a public transport system as exists in the world.
The Metro is very big part of the history of Soviet Moscow and the growth of the City. The construction of Moscow's metro system started in 1933 with the intention to build the best metro of the world. At that time the population was nowhere near the 15 million people that are here today, but the system has been able to keep up with the population growth through a massive expansion that has retained the beauty and efficiency of the system. Today more than 9 million people per day use the Metro, with its 177 stations and nearly 200 miles of lines. Those are a mind boggling figures. It's the best way to move around the city considering the major automobile traffic that clogs the streets daily (see my previous posts): it’s also very inexpensive ($0.70 a ride) AND very very efficient!! It is easy to use the system although you will not see latin letters in the corridors of the metro where there are the other signs. Here’s where my months (OK – weeks) of studying the Cyrillic alphabet have paid off !!
What also sets the Moscow Metro apart is the fact that they aren’t just metro stations. They are absolute architectural and engineering masterpieces. To some they are underground museums. Quite simply the best metro stations ever seen. Take your visual perception of the New York City subway system and turn it around 180 degrees, flip it upside down, shake it around and instead visualize the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That is much closer to the layout inside the Moscow Metro (pronounced Mietro) stations. The platforms are showcases of works of art. The ceilings have chandeliers and are kind of like mini palaces. The ground and walls are often marble and terrazzo. There are statues and paintings everywhere (even in some of the subway cars !!). Each station has its own theme and history, with the predominant theme being socialist “realist” art. The Moscow Metro has become one of the proudest examples of the might and power of the Soviet Union.
I have in all truth never seen a more efficient method of transportation. Trains come every 2 minutes (it’s actually fun to stand there and watch the timer, and right around 1:30 to 2:00 – the next train barrels through just like clockwork). In fact, since the trains are so frequent, there is no timetable that is published or printed. Let me repeat - the system is so amazing and efficient that timetables are totally unncessary! Just stand there for a few seconds and you’ll get picked up! One of the key features of the system is the radial “brown” line that goes around the city in a circular type pattern, allowing passengers access other metro lines without having to travel all the way to the city center. This goes a long way towards keeping the stops in the city center free of excess overcrowding. Everything works so well and the system is so optimized that despite using the Metro every day, we have actually never had to wait for a train for more than 2 minutes, and have never been unable to board due to overcrowding. I think people across the US could only dream of a system this incredible. $0.70 a ride to anywhere you want to go (the system is about 15 miles long from one side to the other), never more than a 2 minute wait, unscrupulously clean, and works of art and architecture to admire during your travel.
The Moscow Metro is also actually the worlds biggest underground antinuclear shelter – as many of the stations are extremely deep (more than 100-200 feet) and feature special steel doors at the entrances that are to close shut in the event of a nuclear strike on Russian soil. Approximately half of the stations, mostly around the City Center, are designed as bomb shelters and could therefore protect hundreds of thousands if not millions of Moscow citizens in the event of a nuclear bomb attack. Additionally, there is also the rumored, and super top secret classified “D-6” metro line, which is a deeper and separate metro system authorized by Josef Stalin after World War II, to provide for transportation and protection in the event of a nuclear attack. Nobody knows how many stations the secret D6 line consists of, but it is thought there are more than 20-30, with many fake buildings acting as decoys across Moscow. This system, which is not officially confirmed, exists under military jurisdiction and was designed for emergency evacuation of key city personnel as well as chosen civilians in case of nuclear attack during the cold war. It is believed that it consists of a single track and connects the Kremlin, the FSB/KGB, the Ministry of Defence, and numerous other secret installations (main Library, Moscow University, police stations, a few other strategic locations in the City) and is speculated that this secret system would allow for the evacuation of a small number of randomly chosen civilians, in addition to most of the elite military personnel.
The Moscow Metro, a marvel of engineering, transportation, and national defense in all regards.
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