If there is one thing I was too afraid to take a picture of, it was was the Tbilisi metro. In retrospect I am sure this would not have been a problem but after getting surrounded by large Ukrainians in camo-gear and physically forced to delete the picture I took of my dad and sister in the Kiev metro from my camera I was in a natural state of caution with regards to taking pictures of the stations. What each country defines as "militarily sensitive" is up to them, as long as I don't get fined or arrested.
Payment method: big 10! The Tbilisi metro is very advanced in terms of payment and ranks much higher than Vancouver in terms of almost everything. In fact, you can't just randomly wander onto the Tbilisi metro with no intention of paying and almost always evade any consequences. What a concept that seems to foreign to the SkyTrain's sieve-like control system. In Tbilisi you have the option of buying small plastic coins, much like anywhere else in the Po-So, or buying a card that you can top up for repeated use. The only thing I would appreciate is if it would tell me how much I had left instead of hurriedly flashing my card and then clotheslining myself into the closed gate because I was out of money.
Decor: 7. Every metro station in the former Soviet Union is perfect and looks like they were designed by grade 6 art classes. They are like living dioramas. It's really too bad I've never been allowed to take pictures in the (except for, *spoiler alert*, Minsk of all places) because they are really beautiful and thoughtful and you can see all the raw materials used to build them (like paper mache and hand-painted everything). The reason I am giving Tbilisi a lower ranking is because they are trying to drop all this by painting roses everywhere and putting TVs with advertisements everywhere to make it look more Western.
Cars: 6. The older ones were exactly the same as the ones in Budapest, though they had painted them up to look more Georgian and modern. This repainting of history doesn't always go over well with me because it's not nice to bite the hand that feeds. This is why I am happy that Budapest has not made a single effort to update or repaint or even clean the cars that they got from the Leningrad Metro Manufaktura in 1960. Tbilisi also seems to have new ones with flashy lights which I can only assume were built by Bombardier. So they get some points in trying to be more like Bucharest but then they also get fewer points because they are trying to be like Bucharest.
User-Friendly Interface: 2. Tbilisi metro ranks pretty low in terms of user-friendly interface. When you get dropped off at the Dudide station at the end of the line at dusk and you know no idea where the centre is on the metro map and therefore where to get off, it can be a bit frustrating. Trying to the decipher the map was a disaster. There was a map, so they get the two points for that. But the only language on it was Georgian so instead of looking like actual place names it looked like a collage of someone's curly hair trimmings superimposed onto a electrical grid schematic. You may think that the one point of interchange is probably in the centre but I would recommend not taking that chance and getting off here. Unless you need to get your shoes shined immediately outside. Or wait in line for 6 hours to find out if a train actually leaves for Azerbaijan at the nearby train station. The station now has a mall attached to it and there is a nice market nearby, but by no means is this the centre. In any case, all you need to do is get off at every station and then beg hopelessly from the attendants to tell you where the centre is. Since they will all have their own opinions, trust no one.
Station placement: 5. Freedom Square and Avlarbari are really far apart so don't think you can just get off at Freedom Square and then walk to Avlabari, especially if you arrive at 10pm. You won't get there until midnight because you'll probably get lost.
In all, a great metro and I would love to see it again.
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