Pavlovsk station has a story that every Russian railway enthusiast can tell. The line from Saint Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo opened in the late 1830s, the first public railway in the country, and it was soon extended to Pavlovsk, where a grand station building became a place of concerts and summer entertainment. Johann Strauss the younger came to conduct there in the nineteenth century, and the rich of the capital rode out in their finery to hear him. The railway still runs, though the trains are electric and the concert hall has long gone quiet.
The old line runs through flat land of fields, woodland and big industrial estates. It is not scenic in the usual sense, but it has a history written into it, in cuttings and embankments, level crossings and old brick station houses.
Riding here means dealing with city traffic. The roads south of the city are busy, with trucks heading for the ring road and the Moscow highway, and the surface is often rutted and patched. Intersections are crowded, and a rider should keep a careful eye on the lane ahead. A short way on, the countryside opens out, and the lanes around Pavlovsk are a pleasant contrast, with old villas among birch and pine.
Fuel is easy. Shushary has stations along the main roads, and the town of Pushkin, only a short ride away, has everything. For a coffee, look for the small bakeries and cafes near the railway stations, which tend to be cheap and cheerful.
The best time to come is early summer, when the long light makes even a suburban edge glow, or the early weeks of autumn, when the park trees turn yellow. Winter is dark, cold and icy, and not the season for exploring.
A short ride from here you can reach the great park at Pavlovsk, one of the loveliest landscape gardens in Russia, and the rail line is a handy guide to it.