The Moscow metro is about to get a modernizing overhaul, including new signage with English translations, new ticket machines and renovations across 100 stations, the metro's deputy director Yury Degtyarev told city news agency Moskva on Monday.
The renovations will be completed in 2015 and are aimed at "giving our passengers a level of comfort that befits the 21st century," Degtyarev said.
The metro will get 300 new ticket machines equipped to accept payment cards, he added.
The metro's current ticket machines only accept cash.
The Moscow metro is also working with financial institutions to create bank cards that double as Moscow metro cards. State lender Sberbank plans to issue one such card by April next year, Yevgeny Kislyakov, vice president of Russia's Universal Electronic Card project, told news site M24.ru last week.
Degtyarev also said Monday that the metro's internal signage, much of which dates back to the Soviet Union and contains little text in English, will be entirely replaced next year.
A test version of the new signs, which show metro announcement and information in both Russian and English, have been put to use at the Prospekt Mira metro station.
