Trains and other things: St. Petersburg

I have some days in St. Petersburg, and I'm planning to visit some of its main train stations and the city centre.

The day before I arrived to this station, Finlyandskiy. It was built by Finnish State Railways as the eastern terminus of the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway. It was designed by Swedish architects and opened in 1870. The station formerly contained a special pavilion for Russian royalty. (Wikipedia)

The station is famously known for the arrival of Vladimir Lenin by train from Switzerland on 3 April 1917. The event is commemorated by the Soviet statue of Lenin dominating the square in front of the station. (Wikipedia)

In the 1950s, the old station building was demolished and replaced with a new one, inaugurated in 1960. The turreted building is decorated with sculptures glorifying the October Revolution and incorporates a portico preserved from the original 1870 edifice. (Wikipedia)

Main hall of the station

Lenin crossed the Russian–Finnish border on the engine #293. The steam locomotive was donated by Finland to the Soviet Union in 1957, and is now installed as a permanent exhibit at one of the platforms on the station.

The only long distance and international service from this service is Allegro to/from Helsinki, which I took the other day. The other services are the commuter and regional trains to/from Vyborg, Priozersk and Lake Ladoga.

Commuter train ЭТ2М (ET2M) is a modernised version of ЭТ2 built during the 90's

ЭС1 (ES1) "Lastochka" is EMU based on Siemens Desiro

Saint Petersburg once had the largest tram network in the world, consisting of about 340 kilometres of unduplicated track in the late 1980s. However, since 1995 the tramway network has declined sharply in size as major portions of track were removed, particularly in the city centre. Saint Petersburg lost its record to Melbourne, Australia. /Wikipedia

Tram 71-623 (КТМ-23) from 2009

Pyshechnaya cafe has its own house cats

Trolza-5265 "Megapolis" trolleybus from 2006

VMZ-5298.01-50 "Avangard" trolleybus from 2007

New Holland Island. The island was created in 1719, when the newly built Kryukov Canal and Admiralty Canal connected the Moika River with the Neva. The triangular island took its name after a number of canals and shipbuilding facilities that rendered its appearance similar to Amsterdam. Peter the Great took the opportunity to create a naval port, including a wooden palace for his own use. /Wikipedia

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Cat cafe

Neva river

Kometa hydrofoil boat

As the town is sometimes called "Venice of the north" due to many rivers and canals, I'm taking a boat tour to view the town from the water.

Winter palace

St. Vladimir's Cathedral

The 462m skyscraper of the Lakhta Center, upon its planned completion in 2018, is expected to be the tallest building in Russia and Europe. /Wikipedia

Almaz Shipbuilding Company

Saint Petersburg Stadium built for 2018 FIFA World Cup

I'm taking the metro from Krestovskiy Ostrov

The metro opened in 1955. Due to the city's unique geology, the Saint Petersburg Metro is one of the deepest metro systems in the world and the deepest by the average depth of all the stations. The system's deepest station, Admiralteyskaya, is 86 metres below ground. Serving about 2 million passengers daily, it is also the 19th busiest metro system in the world. /Wikipedia

Metro car type 81-540.2/541.2 from Vagonmash built 2006-2013

Protection against train surfers

Type 81-717/714 from 1977

Admiralteyskaya station

My 2nd train station to visit after Finland station is the Vitebsky station. Formerly known as St Petersburg-Tsarskoselsky station, it was the first railway station to be built in Saint Petersburg and the whole of the Russian Empire.

Services from the station run to Belarus, Latvia, Kaliningrad among other places and the southern suburbs of St. Petersburg, such as Pushkin and Pavlovsk.

This train is for service to Minsk in Belarus

"Zvezda" train is a daily service departing at 19:13 from St. Petersburg and arriving at 07:14 to Minsk

The locomotive used for this train is a TEP70BS built by Kolomna Locomotive Works

TEP70BS built in 2017

TEP70 from 1992

Here comes another international train

Daily service to Riga in Latvia, the train departs at 17:20 and arrives to Riga at 08:28

The train has coaches to other destinations, here is a coach to Mogilev in Belorus

ChME3 locomotive

ER2T

A coach to Brest in Belarus

The station, was inaugurated in the presence of Nicholas I of Russia on 30 October 1837 when the first Russian train, named Provorny, departed from its platform for the imperial residence at Tsarskoe Selo. /Wikipedia