Rebuilt and reopened in 2020, the Central Bus Station runs 216 intercity routes a day from inside the Shchelkovskaya transport hub — metro, buses and coaches under one roof.
The Central Bus Station — still called Shchelkovsky by Muscovites — sits directly above Shchelkovskaya metro station on the eastern end of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. The 2020 rebuild folded the old coach terminal into a full transport hub: 216 scheduled intercity routes a day, suburban buses, city buses and the metro in a single interchange used by roughly 200,000 people daily.
Destinations run the full eastern and northern arc: Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, plus long-haul coaches toward the Volga and the south. Tickets are sold centrally online; the hall is airside-style, with gates, screens and luggage rooms.
Not everything runs from the centre. Salaryevo in the south-west and the bus gates at the northern rail terminals absorb secondary flows, and many long-distance coaches now pick up at metro-adjacent stops on the MKAD to dodge the centre entirely.
For cross-border itineraries, check the current operator map before you plan: services to Minsk and the Baltic states run with shifting frequencies, and most international departures use the Central station.
Use the Central Bus Station for the Golden Ring and be honest about the trade-off: the coach to Vladimir or Ivanovo undercuts the train and leaves hourly, but it surrenders to Moscow’s outbound traffic on Friday afternoons. Book the 7:00–9:00 departures or take the evening slot after 20:00. If your destination has a Lastochka or Strizh rail option — Nizhny Novgorod is the classic case — the train earns its premium. The coach wins where the railway doesn’t go: small-town Vladimir region, Kostroma side, and anything south-east. One hub, one metro line, no taxi needed — that’s the decision that matters.
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