Moscow Guide
Getting around
Buses, trams and trolleybuses
In theory, Moscow has a fully integrated network of buses, trolleybuses and trams, covering almost every part of the city. The reality is an overstretched and dilapidated system that battles on somehow, but is hardly user-friendly. Aside from the clapped-out vehicles, the overcrowding on some routes is such that you may find it physically impossible to get on board. Many visitors are also discouraged by the pushing and shoving, but Russians rarely take this personally, and once inside the vehicle will cheerfully help each other to punch tickets or buy them from the driver.
As a rule, buses and trolleybuses operate from 6am to 1am, and trams from 5.30am to 1.30am. Some routes are good for sightseeing on a Saturday or Sunday morning when there aren't many passengers. These are: bus б (circling the Garden Ring) and trolleybuses #1 (Belarus Station– Tverskaya ulitsa– Manezhnaya ploshchad– Zamoskvareche), #2 (circling the Kitay-gorod and the Kremlin before heading along Noviy Arbat and Kutuzovskiy prospekt to Victory Park), #5 (1905 Goda metro– Barrikadnaya– Nikitskiy bulvar– ulitsa Prechistenka and on to the Novodevichiy Convent), #8 (past the churches in Zamoskvareche) and #15 (around the Boulevard Ring and along Prechistenka to Novodevichiy). Trams mostly take roundabout routes, and don't run in the centre at all.
Stops (ostankovki) are relatively few and far between, so getting off at the wrong one can mean a lengthy walk. Bus stops are marked with an "A" (for avtobus); trolleybus stops with what resembles a squared-off "m", but is in fact a handwritten Cyrillic "t" (for trolleybus). Both are usually attached to walls, and therefore somewhat inconspicuous, whereas the signs for tram stops (bearing a "T" for tramvay) are suspended from the overhead cables above the road.