The best way to get around in Moscow is by public transportation, especially on the Metro. The city of Moscow will complete the modernisation of its integrated contactless ticketing system across all transit networks by the end of 2021, its deputy mayor for transport Maksim Liksutov has announced. Find out more about public transportation in Moscow Russia below.

The Russian capital’s fare payment service supports “bank cards of virtually all payment systems” as well as Huawei Pay, Mir Pay, Alipay, China UnionPay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay.

“It became evident in 2018 that the old ticketing system did not meet today’s demands, and it was increasingly difficult to refine it, especially since not all the source codes belonged to the Moscow Government.

“We could not adjust it to launch a flexible fare management, for example, to offer discounts within the Early Bird pilot project on lines 7 and 15. It also prevented us from moving towards abandoning remote activation of tickets at yellow terminals” explained Mr. Liksutov.

“Troika card can be topped up online. If you have an NFC-enabled Android phone – which is more than half of our passengers – you can top it up via the mobile app and activate it without the yellow terminal – just touch the ticket to the phone,” he said. Though this feature is not available for iPhone users just yet, the Deputy Mayor said the Department of Transport was working on a solution for that.

Moscow Metro began letting Google Pay users pay fares without unlocking their phones in December 2020. public transportation in moscow russia

The Moscow Metro and aboveground train lines public transportation in moscow russia

The Moscow Metro is fast, cheap, safe and comfortable, except during peak hours when it is very busy (from 7 to 10 in the morning and from 4 to 7 in the afternoon). It runs from 6 in the morning to 1 in the morning.

The most used travel card in Moscow is the already mentioned Troika Card, which can be used to pay on most of the capital city’s public transit systems. In addition to the Troika Card, it is possible to use a Visa or MasterCard to pay and go directly through the turnstiles. It is also possible to use Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

The same tickets serve for the subway as well as the bus, trolleybus, tram or monorail.