Fare for a single ride has gone up in St. Petersburg as of January 1, 2020, especially for subway. The move is mainly targeted at visitors who are typically pay per ride and are not aware of the fact that fares via travel cards are much lower (that’s not you as you will know the truth in a second, just don’t stop reading the post).
In 2020 one ride in St. Petersburg costs:
— by subway — 55 rubles vs 45 rubles in 2019;
— by tram, trolleybus and public autobus — 50 rubles vs 40 rubles in 2019;
— by commercial bus (so called «marshrutka») — depending on route, usually 40-50 rubles.
Read about the difference between the public bus and the commercial bus in our post on St. Petersburg transport.
Yes, they have added 10 rubles, which is an up to 25 percent increase! Looks incredible and even unbelievable. But there is a trick here which we promised you to tell about.
If you pay with a travel card called Podorozhnik or a travel time-limited pass, you pay less. Much less.
Look, one ride by tram, bus or trolley paid by Podorozhnik costs:
— just 33 rubles for rides from 1st to 10th;
— 32 rubles for 11 to 20;
— 31 rubles for 21 to 30;
— 30 rubles for 31 to 41;
— 29 rubles from 41st ride within a calendar month, which means that it starts again with 33 rubles for 1st trip as of 1st day of another month.
The same scheme applies to travel by subway, though with other figures:
— 38 rubles for rides from 1st to 10th;
— 37 rubles for 11 to 20;
— 36 rubles for 21 to 30;
— 35 rubles for 31 to 41;
— 34 rubles from 41st ride within a calendar month.
Not that awful, isn’t it?
Time-limited travel passes also got more expensive, but only a bit. We have renewed all the figures in our post.