Moscow

city · earth

Western terminus of the Trans-Siberian and, for more than a century, the reference clock of the entire Russian railway network. Long-distance trains across eight time zones were timetabled, ticketed and announced in Moscow time regardless of where the passenger stood — so a traveller boarding at Vladivostok read a departure seven hours out of step with the daylight outside the window. Russian Railways ended the practice on 1 August 2018, moving station clocks, boards, announcements and tickets to local time. It is the sharpest illustration in this Journey of a timetable as an instrument of administration rather than of travel.