By road, rail and water: how Moscow drives transport

Moscow’s transport system is getting more robust in all respects as the municipality builds metro lines and highways, integrating commuter rail routes, and so on. Yet, most importantly, it offers excellent passenger experience and plenty of options for comfortable traveling around the city.

On the occasion of Moscow Transport Day, here is an account of how the capital drives this really vital sector.

Moscow transport in facts and figures

Consisting of 430 rail stations, 15 metro lines, four MCDs, about 900 surface services, and two scheduled river routes, today, Moscow’s transport system is one of the amplest and most advanced in the world.

Residents and tourists can choose from more than 10.7 thousand metro cars, the Moscow Central Circle (MCC), Moscow Central Diameters (MCDs), over 600 trams, more than five thousand buses, plus over 1,760 electric buses, in addition to electric boat fleet.

Passengers can also take rides on board 190 thousand taxi cabs in the city and region and avail themselves of the world’s largest car sharing fleet (34 thousand cars), not to mention over 11 thousand bicycles and 60 thousand e-scooters that are available for rent.

More than 200 thousand people employed in the local transport sector do everything to ensure that passengers get to the right places on time, safely and with maximum comfort.

In-demand and popular with passengers

Getting around the capital with public transport is fast, comfortable and safe, indeed; so, more and more Muscovites choose it for daily trips every year.

The number of public transport trips increased up to 15.3 million per day in 1H 2024, which is seven per cent more than the year before (14.27 million trips per day). More than a million passengers have already used scheduled river routes.

Muscovites and tourists are increasingly choosing the metro and MCC as the average daily passenger flow on a business day has increased by six per cent compared to last year.

Meanwhile, passenger traffic increased by 10 per cent on bus and electric bus routes and by 18 per cent on tram lines. And with the launch of MCD-3 and MCD-4, the number of those using the Moscow Central Diameters increased by 16 per cent.

Carsharing is getting more popular with passengers, too (+ two per cent vs. 2023).

Innovation for excellent passenger experience and safety

Moscow is the world’s fleet renewal front runner. Today, residents and visitors are carried by robust state-of-the-art metro, MCC and MCD trains, Russian-made electric buses, trams and electric boats as innovative river fleet is 100 per cent electric to date. Development of each vehicle meets the wishes of both passengers and drivers who will drive newly-made machines.

Since the beginning of the year, Moscow has got more than 140 of the newest Moscow-2024 train cars, which are gradually replacing trains on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. 176 cars were added to the MCD rolling stock, too; the fleet will be renewed at MCD-3 this year, MCD-4 to follow in 2025.

Moscow has launched Russia’s first-ever unmanned tram, which has made over 400 kilometers around the capital to date. Its cameras, radars and lidars enable a 360-degree view to quickly assess the situation and instantly respond to changes along the way. No traffic violations were found during the tests, while artificial intelligence helped the car to successfully avoid over 20 traffic accidents.

In six months, the electric bus fleet was replenished with more than 300 environmentally friendly vehicles, and electric boat fleet got four more electric boats as well.

Sergei Sobyanin: Moscow Metro is served by 75% next-gen trains

Mobile apps and other solutions for comfortable rides

For the convenience of passengers, they can take advantage of local mobile solutions, for example, top up a card or register a ticket with a Troika Travel Card via the Moscow Metro app. Launched in 2017, it has been downloaded more than 14 million times to offer more and more capabilities. Indeed, passengers have recently received access to new functions as they can link a Moscow Resident Social Card, freeze an annual pass for 14 days, issue a virtual Troika or subscribe for free to pay for travel through the quick payment system (QPS) just on the user account. Troika Travel Cards can also be topped up on the mos.ru website. In addition, the Moscow Metro app offers an option to connect to Face Pay, the most innovative service for paying for travel as the safe Russian technology is used at all metro stations, MCC, electric boats, and Aeroexpress services; in 2024, it has been introduced for the MCDs as well.

Since May, passengers have used virtual Troika cards, which can be issued via any smartphone, no matter if it runs Android or iOS. The solution is based entirely on domestic technologies and belongs to the Moscow Government. The virtual travel cards are functional for all public transport options. Almost all subscriptions from the fare menu are available for buying; you can also use the Wallet ticket. ‎ Since the spring passengers can also activate online top-up of their Moscow Resident Social Cards for students and Troikas directly at the metro or MCC turnstiles. The ticket you have bought will be recorded automatically right at the moment you touch the turnstile with your card.

In 2022, the authorities began to introduce another Russian technology for urban transport — the quick payment system (QPS), so, passengers can pay through QPS for fare at all turnstiles of the metro, MCC, scheduled river and ground transport validators in an open test mode.

Meanwhile, Moscow Resident Social Cards that can be accessible to pupils, students, retirees, people with disabilities, children and parents from large families, or other preferential categories authorize low fare or free travel on public transport. They can be linked to the Moscow Metro app for holders to track their travel history, while students can buy and register discount passes. If your card fails for some reason, you can check its status using the new functionality on mos.ru. Thus, you will get the most complete information about your Moscow Resident Social Card, such as validity period and status, termination reason, in particular, if this is due to unauthorized use, etc., at any time and from any device.

The Parking Lots of Russia app is popular with Muscovites as well as it boasts over 1.2 million regular users and over nine million downloads. In addition to the main function of paying for parking, it has other handy options; for example, drivers will find information about the city’s parking lots, parking spaces and related rules, or will be able to correct errors in calculations, pay fines or car towing, and so on.

Launched in 2017, the Moscow Transport app has been downloaded more than 7.4 million times, the number of its registered users exceeding 1.9 million. The application features multiple functions for the user to call, among other things, a taxi, book a short-term rental car, build a route, track the arrival of ground transport in real time, or check passenger traffic.