Getting Around Nizhny Novgorod: Metro Bridge, Trams and Cableway

Because Nizhny Novgorod is divided by the wide Oka River and climbs 80-metre bluffs on the right bank to the historic Upper Town, getting around efficiently means combining the underground Metro for fast cross-river journeys with historic surface trams, cliff-top walking routes, and the aerial cableway or Kremlin funicular for steep vertical climbs.

The Two-Line Nizhny Novgorod Metro and Metro Bridge

Opened on 20 November 1985, the Nizhny Novgorod Metro was the third metro system built in Russia (after Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and the tenth in the Soviet Union. Today the network spans about 22 kilometres across 2 lines and 15 stations, meeting at a four-track cross-platform interchange at Moskovskaya beneath the main railway station:

• Line 1 (Avtozavodskaya, Red Line): Runs north from Park Kultury and the GAZ automobile district through Moskovskaya, then emerges onto the lower rail deck of the two-level steel Metro Bridge over the Oka River to reach Gorkovskaya (opened on 4 November 2012 on Maxim Gorky Square in the Upper Town, placing passengers directly on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street).
• Line 2 (Sormovsko-Meshcherskaya, Blue Line): Runs from Burevestnik in the western districts through Moskovskaya to Strelka (opened on 12 June 2018 for the FIFA World Cup beside the stadium, the 1890 Fairgrounds, and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral).

Russia's 1896 Electric Tram Network

Regular electric trams began running in Nizhny Novgorod on 8 (20) May 1896 for the All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition, making it one of the oldest electric tram systems in Russia. Originally built in competing upper and lower gauges and later unified to a 1,524-millimetre gauge, the tram network includes two routes especially useful for visitors: Tram 2 (the City Ring), which loops around the historic Upper Town from Sennaya Square across Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street (at Oktyabrskaya Street) to Lyadov Square, and Tram 11, which trundles along historic Rozhdestvenskaya Street below the Kremlin between National Unity Square and Alexander Nevsky Square.

Volga Cableway, Kremlin Funicular and Contactless Payment

Russian-issued contactless bank cards (foreign Visa and Mastercard cards do not work in Russia) and the rechargeable regional Siticard transport card are accepted across the Metro, municipal buses, trolleybuses, trams, suburban commuter trains, and the 3,660-metre Volga aerial cable car to Bor, while the reconstructed Kremlin funicular (first opened in 1896 and reopened in 2024) carries pedestrians up the steep hillside ravine from National Unity Square on Rozhdestvenskaya Street to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin courtyard near Northern Tower and Minin and Pozharsky Square.