Minsk Transportation

For me, Minsk is not very big city (like Moscow is) and it is quite easy to get the place by feet. Sometimes, of course, you need the transport. I used metro only (for example, that to get my hotel). The single ticket is BYR 1300 (USD 0.15) and valid for any distance (like in Moscow). Besdies there are still counters that you should throw to the special machine in the entrance of the station (like several years ago in Moscow).

It is rather convinient to go to Belarus by train.

What was strange that on my way from Moscow to Minsk none asked me to show my passport. There is no border between countries, but what is more strange that even train conductors asked only for ticket.

One more interesting fact. At some big railway stations in former Soviet Union there is an interesting tradition - when train is departing towards Moscow one of the famouse millitary marches is relayed via station broadcast system, usually it is March "Farwell of Slavonic Woman". I saw custom is alive in Minsk and in Feodosia (Ukraine).

Background music and text is here: "Farwell of Slavonic Woman"

(Midi file is here: Proschanie Slavyanki , Karaoke version (with better music) is here: Proschanie Slavyanki )

Minsk, as capital of Belarus and very big city (having around 1,7 million people population) has all kinds of transportation - buses, trolleybuses, trams and metro. Public transport operates from about 05:30 AM to 01:00 AM.

Here you can see more expensive - use public transportation as mini buses or taxis. I was using only bus and trolleybus here. It was recommendation to use Minsk metro, but its line was not suitable for us.

Recently arrived in Minsk at 0300 in the morning, and needed a taxi to the airport (Minsk 2). There were a few taxis waiting outside the front of the station. They didn't hassle me. My driver was extremely helpful and accepted Russian currency. Maybe this is obvious, but I didn't want to get involved changing currrency for only one thing in the railway station at 3 in the morning!
He charged me 1000 Roubles which seemed fair to me.
Stewart

There are around 20 trains between Moscow and Minsk daily. All of them have sleeping coaches and travel time takes between 7,5 and 12 hours.

It is better to travel by trains organized by Belarus railways then Russian Railways, as they have better service, carriages are clean and meals/drinks are very cheap. Belarusian trains usually colored blue and Russians trains are green.

The best trains are 003/004, 001002, 007/008, 009/010, 013/014. Price depends on the train and season, but in general one-way ticket price for 1st class is 150 USD, 2nd class 60-100 USD, 3d class 30-45 USD, for real backpackers there is cheapest seating class for 17 USD :)

You can buy ticket in internet on Russian railways site www.rzd.ru, but remember that anyway you have to get original ticket in ticket machine in railway station or ticket sale point in Russia. It is not possible to buy ticket in the Belarusian railway site, but tickets in Belarus cost always cheaper, so if you don’t travel in peak dates (weekend, holidays) then it is better to buy tickets in Railways station in Minsk.

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Walking in city centre of Minsk is quite simple. Main sights are in walkable distance, but only Belarusian National Library is a bit further. For sightseeing of most of soviet style buildings it is possible to walk Independence Avenue (Nezaleznosti prospekt).

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The Metro in Minsk (Мінскае метро) was opened in '84 and it has 2 lines for a total of 23 stations.
The Moskovskaya line has 9 stations and goes from SW to NE.
The Avtozavodskaya Line has 14 stations and goes from NW to SE.
The 2 lines cross in the very centre of the city, at the Kupalauskaja/Kastrychnitskaja (Купалауская/Кастрычнiцкая) stations.
Yeah, the crossing station has different names depending on the line you are on... and that's not the only problem: there are different names in Belarusian and Russian languages! Officially all stations have the Belarusian (new) name and that's the name you read on trains, but in many stations there's still the old Soviet/Russian name, which sometimes can be totally different. And the people are more used to the old names... That can make a bit of confusion. The Kastrychnitskaja for example is better known as Oktyabrskaya.
To add more confusion the station by the Independence square was called Lenina (as the old square name), then Nezalezhnascy (like the actual square name) and now Lenina again...
BTW, once you get used to cyrillic alphabet and Russian/Belorusian names, going around with the metro in Minsk is rather easy and it helps a lot to move along the big spaces of the Belarusian capital.
There are no tickets, but tokens (Гетон) like in all Soviet metros. One Гетон costs 600 Roubles (about 20c€).

Stations can be very nice, expecially the old Soviet ones, with marble everywhere, nice lamps, hammers & sickles and paintings of proletarians. The new ones are more modern but usually with much less charme. Stations are usually very clean and trains too. I foun it 100% safe to travel on the metro at any time of the day and night. There's often police outside and indide the trains.

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Minsk central railway station is one of the most modern I've ever seen in my life. It's really brand new, glasses everywhere, extremely clean; maybe it's not an old romantic station, but surely it's a very good one and most of the time you will arrive or leave from here.
The station is very close to the Independence Square (Ploshchad Nezalezhnosti) and really not far from the main centre of the city. It's directly connected to the metro system through underground passages.
Beside the railway station there's also one of the main Bus Stations of Minsk: it's an older building from soviet times, not very big, with a couple of big parking lots for buses on both sides. Buses and marshrutkas going south leave from here.