The Moscow Metro spans almost the entire Russian capital, and is one of the world's most heavily used systems.

It is a state-owned enterprise, which was built under the 1930’s Moscow general plan and designed by Lazar Kaganovich.

The length of the route is 282.5 km in total, with 12 lines and 173 stations.

It is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations, which contain beautiful examples of socialist realist art.

Like this.......................

On a normal weekday it carries over 7 million passengers!

Each line is identified by an alphanumeric index (usually consisting of just a number, or a name, and a colour).

On all lines, travelers can determine the direction of the train by the gender of the announcer: on the ring line, a male voice indicates clockwise travel, and a female voice counter-clockwise. On the radial lines, travelers heading toward the centre of Moscow will hear male-voiced announcements, and travelers heading away will hear female-voiced announcements (a good mnemonic rule here is: ‘your boss calls you to work; your wife calls you home’).