Russia: Movement

Russia may be a large country, but it has large problems too.

Railways, Trains, & Metros

• Railways and trains are very popular in Russia. Most are electrified. Some of the bigger cities have an underground metro, like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan. Volgograd even has a metro tram.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad

• The longest railway in Russia is called the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It is a network of railways connecting Moscow & European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China, and the Sea of Japan. It is now part of the Eurasian Land Bridge. Construction of the railroad began in 1891. Workers worked from the ends of the railroad into the middle. Russian soldiers were also inserted to work. Ships and ice-breakers were used to connect the railways together.

Waterways

• Russia has 102,000 km of inland waterways. They mostly go by natural rivers and lakes. Some waterways connect to the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Azov Sea, and the Black Sea. In 2008, Russia owned 1448 merchant marine ships. These waterways are used often. People use them to get to places where land vehicles can’t reach.

Air Transportation in Russia

• Russia has a good air transportation system. It has 1216 airports, mostly in major cities. One of the major airlines in Russia is called Aeroflot. In Russia’s north and in Siberia, people use helicopters more often than airplanes. They use them more because it gets them to the place faster than an airplane would.

Basic Public Transportation

• Most modern Russian cities or towns have the basic public needs. Such as public buses, trolleybuses, trams, and cable cars. Usually, they are tightly packed with people. Like all rush hours, Russia’s public transportation is the busiest when people go to work, and come back from work.