Not the...

Not particulary exciting, I know. But I realised that in all our time here, I have never done a post about the bus system, which we use regularly as we do not have a car. This may still be of interest for those of you who have never been to Russia. The buses come in many varieties. The one shown here seats about 25 people and another 25 standing seem to squash on. They go quite regularly. These buses are quite old and the drivers always seem to crunch the gears.



There are the bigger buses that seat 50 odd plus standing. The old ones are being phased out. The "new" replacements are actually second hand buses from Korea, but some of them look quite new and are probably only a few years old. They are mostly Daewoos.



Another form of buses is the "trolley bus." These are all old claptraps, but as they run on overhead elelctricity like trams do, they will probably keep going for a long time yet. All three of the above mentioned formats have conductors who come and ask for money for your tickets. Public transport is still quite cheap unlike material goods. A ticket on a bus is usually 10 rubles which is about 50 cents. Abigail rides for free until she is 7. (School age.)



The last form of bus is a mini bus, with rearranged seats about 15 people can squeeze in. It is a squeeze, and the drivers are crazy, so they make good time, unless there is a traffic jam. These days many people have cars. There are around 10 times as many cars on the road than there were 6 years ago, that's right 10 times. There are many new drivers who really don't know what they are doing so the roads are crazy, especially when it is icy.

Hope you enjoyed the ho hum bus post.