Moscow Water Transport

Inland water transport is one of the oldest types of transport serving Moscow citizens. The united city water transport system includes waterways, ports, shipping companies, as well as ship-repair and ship-building enterprises responsible for passenger transportation, navigation safety, and waterways operation. Waterways of the Moscow water area extend from Moscow along the Channel named after Moscow and the Volga river to Rybinsk, as well as from Moscow along the Moscow River and the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga.

Apart from cruising river buses that make tourist and entertaining trips along the Moscow River within the city there are cruising ships that depart from the Northern and Southern river stations and take their passengers along Russian rivers via many old Russian cities.

Main river navigation starts from the Northern river station situated at the bank of the Khimki Reservoir. It was built in 1937. The river station is an architecture memorial and one of the symbols of Moscow. From this station cruising ships depart that take their passengers on short weekend trips and on long trips to Saint Petersburg, the Solovetsky Islands, Perm, Ufa, Astrakhan, and Rostov-on-Don that take from two weeks up to a month.  

The building of the Northern river station is built in the form of a huge ship with a high spire and a broad central staircase. At the end of the spire there is the star that in 1935—1937 was at the Spasskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin. The sickle and hammer are encrusted with semiprecious stone from the Urals. The verandas of the station are decorated by the fountains South and North that symbolize the connection between the southern and northern waterways of Moscow. A park is adjoining the station building. In the station there is a restaurant. The total length of the quays is 1.5 km.

This pretty card was sent to me by Zhenya.