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St. Petersburg's metro is perhaps not as majestic as the one in Moscow, yet it looks more impressive than most other subways and undergrounds of the world. It is also the deepest subway in the world.
Despite the recent funding problems the metro is still the most reliable city transport (particularly convenient for long-distance journeys). Normally trains arrive every 2-3 minutes, with slightly longer waiting periods early in the morning and late at night. Note the changes in the metro opening times: on average the stations open at about 5:45 am and close between midnight and 0:30 am You can transfer from one line to the other until 0:15 am.
 | Orientation |
St. Petersburg's metro has five lines which are numbered and assigned specific colors on a metro map. You can find English language metro maps in most printed city guides.
Line 1 has the most beautiful stations and thus is perfect for "metro sightseeing".
| Entering Metro |
Unless you buy a monthly pass (called kartochka or proyezdnoy) you pay by tokens, which can be purchased at special counters or booths located at every station. These booths also sell monthly metro passes and passes which allow you to use all forms of public transport (yediny or yedinaya kartochka).
There are two types of entry gates at metro stations, but the old ones quickly disappear. New gates accept both tokens and monthly / 10 journey passes, while in the past you had to use different gates.
To enter the metro do the following:
- If you use tokens: place your token in the entry gate (with your right hand), wait for the token to drop, then walk through, or
- If you have a monthly / 10 Journey Pass: insert your monthly/10 journey plastic pass into the slot of a gate. When the card is ejected, walk through. If you have any problems with a gate, take your card to the member of station staff on duty, who can normally be found in a glass booth near the entry gates.
| History of St. Petersburg Metro |
The first plans to build a metro in St. Petersburg were drawn in 1899, but were not implemented due to the outbreak of WWI and then the Revolution of 1917. In 1941, 8 years after the Moscow metro was opened, building was started on the Leningrad metro, but a few months later the U.S.S.R. was forced to enter WWII. After the war the construction work resumed and the first metro line (from Avtovo to Ploschad Vosstania) was opened on November 15, 1955. Since then the metro network has grown to five lines with an average of 1.9 km (1.19 miles) between its 62 stations.
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