When Russians go abroad, they compare what they see there with personal experience. Take the subway: in a guidebook, article in a popular magazine or blog, it is noted that the subway in New York is dumb, absolutely nothing, and in addition, it smells like homeless people. A similar story is about the subways of London, Berlin, Barcelona. Paris is being relaxed: the central stations there are decorated and spacious.
Assuming that foreigners also have a story to tell. We talked to a Dutch tourist and asked him to share his own impressions of the Moscow metro.
The Dutchman notes that the metro is a popular place, and all his friends who have visited Russia also cause enthusiastic responses. First of all, the Moscow metro is not at all like the metro. In his opinion, if he were shown photographs, he would never have believed that the photographs show the subway, and not the palace, museum or residence of the imperial dynasty.
Looks like palace chambers
Moscow metro stations resemble enfilades of palace halls or the chambers of kings. " Kievskaya" , decorated with rich gilded decorations and mosaic panels " Komsomolskaya" , the unlikely " Mendeleevskaya" , the pretentious and gloomy " Victory Park" , the majestic " Prospekt Mira" , the airy " Mayakovskaya" , austere and cold " Novoslobodskaya" , restless " Novokuznetskaya" together with adjacent sisters - there is nothing like this in any system of underground electric trains abroad - except for Paris (the station " Slavyansky Boulevard " was built "in exchange" with the mayor's office of Paris - from it one can judge what awaits Russian tourists in the Paris subway).
The pragmatic and lively mind of a foreigner immediately begins to attach vast unoccupied spaces for practical needs. To hold symphony concerts at the stations: the acoustics are awesome! And the tickets, although they are getting more expensive from year to year, are still cheap - in comparison with the conservatory.
Like penguins in the cold
In Antarctica, penguins huddle in flocks and warm each other with their bodies, periodically changing places so that the cooled individuals can warm themselves in the center of the crowd and in the thick of events. In the Moscow metro, similar processes are taking place, with the only difference that it is damn hot there.
On half of the lines, there are no air conditioners in the cars, there is only natural ventilation through the windows (open through one) and ajar vents, as well as special pylons on the ceiling. On the second - the condo is not turned on or is turned on for heating even in the autumn and spring months.
Too many police
Each station in Moscow is equipped with several police patrols, a total of 10-15 people go to the station. This is unusual in Europe: the same number of law enforcement officers are usually on duty at a major European train station, for example, in Utrecht, Antwerp or Amsterdam. In the Paris metro, police are not stationed at every station.
Plus, the foreigner was embarrassed by the frequent checks of documents of persons of Caucasian nationality and all kinds of Asians. He considered it a great success that he did not look like his grandmother, a native of Sumatra (this is a former Dutch colony): then he would also be checked.
An abundance of video surveillance systems
In recent years, there have been more cameras in the subway: one per carriage, then two, three, four, in new trains their number reaches sixteen. At the stations, progress in terms of observation also does not stand still: three or four video recording systems can be seen on one support.
According to statistics, there are a hell of a lot of video surveillance systems in Moscow, the city surpasses the United States and large European cities, although it cannot yet compare with New York and the Chinese. Until.
Regularity of movement
Muscovites scurry so as not to miss the train, rush along the escalator through four steps - and all this in order to be in time to slip through the slamming pneumatic doors of the departing train ... Moreover, a new one will come to replace it in 3-5 minutes (at rush hours trains run with an interval of one and a half minute).
In the Netherlands or the USA, if you are late, you will have to wait not a minute or two, but half an hour or even an hour.
Purity
Despite the absence of trash cans, containers and receivers, the Moscow metro is usually very clean. Sometimes you can come across fresh traces of the life of the mischievous Moscow revelers, but they disappear as if by the wave of a finger in a few minutes.
The floors in the halls and on the platforms sparkle and shine. Of particular interest to our interlocutor is the method of washing steps with sawdust - he has not seen this anywhere else.
