Marvelous Moscow Metro

We appreciate having the metro system in Moscow that makes it possible for us to more fully experience the city with inexpensive, efficient transportation. It frequently is very crowded and getting to sit isn't always possible. In fact, there are times when it seems there could not be room for another body to stand - but somehow there always is!

Prospect Mira (brown line)
Decorations including the lighting are different
in each metro station.

Often times in our hurry to get to our destination while trying to weave our way through the crowds in the train stations, we don't take time to fully enjoy the uniqueness of each station and the details of the decorations.

Komsomolskaya Station (brown line)
This is the station where we had to go to get the
bus or train to Tver when we were assigned
to that branch in the beginning of our mission.

February 23, a Russian holiday commemorating "Defenders of the Motherland," was a good day to take photos of the metro when fewer people were riding. We went with the Masons and got off at each stop on the brown line starting in the north at Novoslobodskaya and going around the circle until we came to Serpukhovskaya in the south.

Novoslobodskaya Station in the north (brown line)


Serpukhovskaya in the south (brown line)


Serpukhovskaya station sign written in Cyrillic

These signs are in each station so you can see
how many stops to your destination.

We also crossed the platforms at each stop along the way where there were other lines intersecting on the brown line.

Chkalovskaya (light green line)
crossing Kurskaya on the brown line.


Taganskaya (brown line)


Taganskaya (purple line)


Marksistskaya (yellow line at Taganskaya)
Stations on the brown line tend to be more
decorative than those on other lines.


Dobrynenskaya in the south (brown line).
Notice the escalators at the end. Some stations
have very long escalators; others are shorter.


Sam going down one of the long escalators.
(Photo taken last year.)

After taking pictures at Dobrynenskaya and at Serpukhovskaya, we went on the grey line northwest past Polyanka to the intersection with four lines - Biblioteka em Lenina (orange line), Arbatskaya (blue line), Borovitskaya (gray line), and Aleksandrovsky Sad (light blue line).

Arbatskaya (blue line)
This is one of my favorite stations.

I read that the stations on the Arbatskaya line (or Arbat), built during the Cold War, are very deep and were planned as shelters in the event of a nuclear war.

One of the newer trains on the blue line.


Polyanka station (grey line)

We continued on the grey line to Tverskaya and changed to the green line to return to Sokol, the station near where we live.

Borovitskaya station (grey line)

Chekhovskaya station (gray line)


Chekhovskaya station
Now with all the people this station looks more normal
than other stations earlier in the day.

Sokol station is probably the least attractive metro station, but it is easy to pronounce and easy to hear announced. We frequently meet "on the bridge at Sokol" or "on the platform at Sokol" when we join the Shepards, Jorgensens, Nearons, and Masons to go to a Family Home Evening, a zone conference or district meeting, or a P-day outing, etc. Sokol is about a 15 or 20-minute walk from our apartment depending on the ice.