Transportation in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg's network is built around the metro, fast, clean, and cheap enough that a single ride costs a fraction of a coffee. Buy the rechargeable Podorozhnik card at any station machine. It works on the metro, buses, trams, and marshrutkas (fixed-route minibuses), so you can skip the daily ticket line. Above ground, trams and buses fill the gaps. But they crawl in the historic center's traffic; for short hops, walking is often quicker. For the airport run, the official Pulkovo Express bus is the budget option, comfortable and direct to Moskovskaya metro station, where you can hop on the blue line into town. If you land late, the express stops running, and the taxi rank outside arrivals becomes the only game in town. Insist on the meter or pre-book via a ride-hailing app to avoid the unofficial drivers who quote inflated flat fares.