Should you come to Moscow by plane, the first problem you face, unless someone meets you at the airport with a car, is how to get to the city. Whatever the airport – they are all located in Moscow suburbs. From Domodedovo airport, the easiest and the cheapest way to get to Moscow is to use Domodedovo Aeroexpress that will bring you to Paveletsky Rail Terminal. From Vnukovo airport Vnukovo aeroexpress goes to Kievsky Rail Terminal. And one of the possible ways (but probably not the most convenient) to Moscow from Sheremetyevo is a bus to Lobnya station from where an express train runs to the Savyolovskiy Rail Terminal.
That means these rail terminals will with high probability be the first place you will see in Moscow. Paveletsky terminal seems to be one of the most comfortable and equipped one of them. It operates trains that go to Voronezh, Volgograd, Saratov, Astrakhan, Baku, Balakovo, Donetsk, Lipetsk, Lugank, Novorossiysk, Stavropol, Tambov, and Elista. Originally called Saratov Railway Station, it was named after a village of Pavelets, when the railroad leading south-west of Moscow reached that point in 1899. The ornate building of the station, completed in 1900 and extensively reconstructed in the 1980s, remains one of the smallest of Moscow railway terminals. In 1924, it was the place where Muscovites came to meet the body of deceased Lenin. The Lenin Funeral Train is still a permanent exhibit there.
At the same time Kievsky Rail Terminal is considered to be one of two Moscow's dirtiest. Loads of vagrants live here, beg for money and make this place unbearable. A product market located nearby surely doesn't make things better. This terminal serves on Southern and South-Western directions: Kiev, Istanbul, Athens, Prague, Kishinev, Odessa, Kaluga, Belgrad, Bryansk, Zagreb, Lvov, Sofia, Chernigov, and other cities. The Kiev Railway Station was built in Moscow between 1914 and 1917 as the Bryansk Rail Terminal. Designed by Ivan Rerberg and Vladimir Shukhov, it is considered an important landmark of architecture and engineering of the time. The Kiev Rail Terminal is built in the style of Neoclassical Revival, with obvious eclectic influences and inevitable 51-meter-high clocktower.
The Savyolovskiy Rail Terminal, apart from Sheremetyevo Express, operates only suburban commuter trains. The principal destinations are Dolgoprudny, Lobnya, Iksha, Dmitrov, Taldom, Savyolovo, and Dubna. The station lacks the ornateness and grandeur of Moscow's other terminals. It was built over the years 1897-1902, when a 130 km line was built straight north of Moscow to connect it to the towns of Kashin, Kalyazin, Uglich, and Rybinsk. The modern name of the terminal originates from the name of a village Savyolovo (now a district of the town of Kimry) situated on the line.
Now, there are only three main Moscow rail terminals, that we haven't described yet. The legendary "Kursky vokzal" (Kursky Rail Terminal) on the eastern edge of the center of Moscow was poetized in a popular Russian book "Moskva-Petushki", written by Venedikt Yerofeev. The novel describes an endless trip of the drunkard Venechka, that resembles the one of Alisa in the Wonderland: whenever the hero tries to get to Petushki from Kursky vokzal, he manages to find himself in Moscow again and again. And this book is not far from reality. Kursky vokzal have for decades been a place, where vagrants, alcoholics and beggars gathered. The station itself has nothing in common with other Moscow's rail terminals. It is a very modern two-storey glass building (the main part of it was built in 1972) without any signs of fantasy. The neighborhood near Kursky Station has traditionally been used for manufacturing and warehousing. Its main destinations are Caucasus, Crimea, Ukraine and Krasnodar region. On Saturdays and Sundays, a specially decorated train, Yasnaya Polyana, departs from Kursky vokzal and arrives at the Kozlova Zaseka station not far from the Tolstoy museum.
Belorussky Rail Station naturally serves Belorussia, and besides it operates trains to Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and some trains to Latvia. It is considered to be the main West-bound stations in Moscow. Many European capitals are connected with Moscow through Belorussky vokzal. It is one of the oldest and most interesting railway stations of Moscow. It is just 5 minutes away from the bustling Tverskaya Street with its shops, restaurants, casinos, and clubs.
Rizhsky vokzal Serves most of the trains to Latvia. It's history began in 1900, when the first floor of "Vindavsky train station" has been built. The station is designed by S. Brzhozovsky who has created the plan of Vitebsky Station in Saint Petersburg. The building is notable for it's beautiful front, made in antique Russian style, as if it consisted from three "terems" (attics). The solemn opening ceremony took place in 1901, when the first train from Rzhev came to the station. Vindavsky station was renamed into Rizhsky in 1946.
Nastya Makryashina