Metro pass: history

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Millions of passengers use the subway every day. People are accustomed to spending many hours of their lives in underground transport, they even dedicate songs and books to this, and do not think at all about how this type of transport became available to the majority. And even more so, spending their “42 minutes underground” and putting a convenient plastic card into a bag or pocket, no one remembers that once the fare was paid in a completely different way.

Tickets

It's hard to believe, but the metro used to have the same system as the Soviet surface transport. Instead of metro tickets, passengers bought tickets, and inspectors checked them in the trains.

Back in 1935, people used cardboard cards. Such a ticket was valid in one direction for half an hour after the mark. Privileged citizens were en titled to preferential tickets. The number of season ticket holders did not exceed 10% of the total number of passengersmetro, so they put down the name and surname of the owner. It also increased the chances of getting the pass back if lost or stolen.

Later, the number of registered discount tickets sold reached 700 per day, and a one-time subway pass became an ordinary tear-off ticket, the same as in a tram or bus. During the war, the first ticket vending machine was installed at the Komsomolskaya metro station, which accepted coins in denominations of 10 and 15 kopecks. At the same time, a prototype of a reusable metro pass appeared: subscription books for two and eight rubles. The cost of the trip at that time was 40 kopecks.

Turnstiles

The growing load on underground transport served as a kind of impetus for the development of machine control. It was simply unrealistic to find the necessary number of controllers capable of checking tickets for all passengers, especially since many entered and exited at intermediate stations.

The first two turnstiles were tested in October 1935 at the Kropotkinskaya metro station, which was then called the Palace of Soviets, but the first operating turnstile appeared only 17 years later: in 1952, the Krasnye Vorota metro station was equipped with an automatic control system "".

The automatic control system has made it possible to abolish paper tickets. Starting in 1961, passengers began to use the subway by throwing five kopeck coins into the turnstile at the entrance. The advantages of this method of payment at that time were obvious: firstly,the need to keep tickets for the entire trip and be afraid of losing them, secondly, the cost of producing paper tickets was significantly reduced, and thirdly, this made it possible to save a lot of budgetary funds by abolishing the position of the controller in the subway.

Tokens

In 1935, a batch of "experimental" tokens was issued, the second batch was used on the very first turnstiles, but, basically, in Soviet times, five-kopeck coins served as tokens. However, in 1992, due to the political situation in the country, there was a sharp jump in inflation. Money depreciated literally before our eyes, and constantly changing the functionality of the turnstiles, which initially worked for accepting 15 kopecks, was unprofitable and physically impossible.

The management of the subway decided to introduce metal tokens into circulation, which a little later, in the same year, were replaced with plastic ones. Probably, every Muscovite still has a couple of these pale green translucent circles somewhere.

Despite the seeming inconvenience, for more than five years only tokens were in use, and only in 1997 were paper magnetized tickets introduced. The use of tokens finally ceased only in February 1999.

Cards

The magnetic tape card was gradually replaced by a contactless subway pass. Thanks to this, in 2000, a single travel card for the metro and commuter trains was introduced. Magnetic cards finally disappeared in 2002.

In 2013completely updated fares and fare system. They introduced the Troika, so beloved by everyone. At the same time, "one-time" tickets (for one, two and five trips) have risen in price several times, and the cost of travel on contactless Troika cards, which are a kind of electronic wallet, on the contrary, has decreased.

Currently, to buy a metro pass for a year, it is enough to deposit 18,200 rubles on the Troika card. This can be done either through the cashier or machine in cash or by card, or by electronic transfer. This pass is valid for 12 months for any type of transport within Moscow.