This kind of city transport was open in Yekaterinburg in 2005. It has now 11 stations and length 30 kilometers. Local authorities were very proud of appearance of this kind of transport and they hoped it will become popular. But it didn’t happen. In the very beginning it had 10 pairs of routes a day, now one had to cancel some empty routes and current time-table has just 7 rows.
On the track of the train authorities established 3 new stations in the places that most convenient for the people. It was good but it is little. Unfortunately most of the stations are in industrial districts and if you want to reach the train you have to pass some dirty and dangerous distance. Moreover it’s not very frequent transport: the average distance between routes – couple hours. That is if you are late you have to smile and look for another variants.
But I love this train and wish him for a long life. If I managed to get on this train I can be sure that in 20 minutes I will be at destination point. Because of low popularity the carriages always are half-empty. The carriage-woman that sells tickets always wishes good journey and it makes my mood for all the day.
Once a month Yekaterinburg faces with traffic-collapse. And I regard this cases as ideal moments to remind my friends about the City Train.
This train has kind Russian spirit, and if you are going to visit Yekaterinburg take a ride on it for a quarter of an hour! It will not takes a lot of money, it costs less than one dollar.
