Moscow's main airport gets train service. Finally.

If you've ever had the pleasure of visiting Russia and flown into Moscow, you probably flew into Sheremetyevo* airport. For those of you that haven't, I can try to sum it up for you in a couple of words here: It's terrible.

The domestic and international terminals are separated in different buildings on different sides of the airport, so you have to take a shuttle way out and around to get there. The staff are pretty unfriendly and largely hostile to English speakers. And it's wicked wicked far from the city. It's a long, hard bus ride into the city to connect to the subway, that with traffic can take hours.

Luckily, at least that part is coming to an end. Just this week, Russia finally finished a rail link into Sheremetyevo airport, easing the horrible burden on traffic and congestion into the busy airport.

Rail service started Wednesday at the modest ticket price of $10.50/ticket. They could have made the ticket twice that and I would have paid it.

Now, onto the rest of the airport which direly needs the update. Russia started the upgrades to the international terminal last year and the domestic terminal remodeling is slated to start next year. And not a moment too soon.



* Firefox 3.0's suggestions for the misspelling of "Sheremetyevo": Usherette and Magnetosphere. Maybe that's why it's still in beta.

Filed under: Russian Federation, Transportation