Novosibirsk has a metro system with two lines — the oldest metro east of the Urals, opened in 1985. It is small (13 stations) but covers the most useful central corridor along Krasniy Prospekt and crosses the Ob River on a bridge, which is the fastest way between the left bank and right bank of the city. Buy tokens at the station windows; the fare is the same anywhere on the network.
Above ground, the city is served by an extensive network of trams, trolleybuses, and buses. The system is Soviet in origin and requires some navigation patience, but marshrutki (shared minibus taxis) fill the gaps and are faster on many routes. The number is displayed in the front window; tell the driver where you want to stop and pay when you get off.
Taxis are plentiful and cheap by Western standards. The apps Yandex Taxi and Citimobil work in Novosibirsk and are more reliable than hailing on the street. Uber is not operational in Russia.
Getting to Akademgorodok is most easily done by suburban train (elektrichka) from Novosibirsk-Glavny (the main station) — the journey takes about 40 minutes and drops you at Ob station, from which it is a 20-minute walk through forest roads to the main campus. Bus 8 also runs from the city centre and takes longer but stops closer to the research institutes. A taxi is faster and still not expensive for visitors.
Walking is viable only in the immediate city centre. The distances between sights are long, the weather is often hostile, and the street grid rewards public transport over pedestrians.