Country info: Russia (Россия)

Rail companies: RZD (Российские Железные Дороги)

For more detailed information about train schedules and fares use our forum

Russian Rail Network Map 

Currency: 1 euro =app. 40 Russian Rubles (RUB) 

Train travel in Russia: train types, tickets, fares, discounts & other useful info

National Train Service:

Train types in Russian Federation: Suburban (пригородные); Suburban Express (скрорые пригородные); Local (местные); Passenger long-distance (дальние пассажирские); Express (скорые) & High-speed (скоростные)

Long-distance trains (Passenger or Express) can also be 'upgraded' having so-called 'Brand' making them 'Branded Trains' ('фирмынные поезда'). RZD 'branded' trains are easy to recognize since they usually have special train name (like Rossija for Moscow-Vladivostok, Amber for Mocow-Kaliningrad, Red Arrow for Moscow-St.Petersburg etc.), painted in some unique livery, have newer carriages and shorter travel time

• Suburban/Commuter (пригородные) – commuter service mainly around big cities & towns, usually run for not more than 200km. No seat reservation required, special commuter tariff applies. RZD suburban trains have a 4 digit number starting with 6***
  
• Suburban Express (скрорые пригородные ) – express commuter service, with less stops & compulsory seat reservation. Suburban Express trains have 4 digit number starting with 7***
• Local (местные) - train service exceeding suburban in terms of distance (although mainly less than standard long-distance), routes of local trains usually stay inside a region or connect two neighboring regions, seat/bed reservation compulsory. Local trains have 3 digit number starting with 6**
  
• Passenger (пассажирские) – 'classical' long-distance (usually overnight) trains found all over Russian Federation (with average route speed <50 km/h), seat/bed reservation compulsory. Passenger trains in Russia have 3 digit number starting with 3**, 4** (seasonal) or 5** (additional)
  
• Express (скорые) - fast long-distance trains (with average route speed >50 km/h), seat/bed reservation compulsory. Express trains have 3 digit numbers between 1-150 and between 181-298
  
• High-Speed (скоростные) – high-speed 'Sapsan' (Siemens Velaro RUS) EMU (service connecting   St.Peterburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod), 'Swallow' (Siemens Desiro RUS) on St.Petersburg to Novgorod/Bologoe & 'Allegro' (Alstom Pendolino) conneting St.Petersburg and Helsinki. High-Speed trains in Russia have 3 digit number between 151-178

NB: in Russia for domestic journeys ticket and seat reservation are printed on the same ticket sheet

Types of carriages in RZD trains:

• Common ('общий вагон') – mainly 'platskartnyi' couchette carriage where not 54 berths (as in usual 'platskartnyi') are sold, but 81 seats, thus basically turning couchette carriage into seating carriage, seat reservation compulsory (used in some Local & Passenger trains) 
• Sitting ('сидячий') – various seating carriages used in Suburban, Suburban Express, Passenger, Express & High-Speed trains, can be aircraft type salon (1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd class) or compartments (1^st or 2^nd class)
• 'Platskartnyi' (плацкартный) – 3^rd class couchette carriage (3/6) with an open compartments & 54 berths (beds from #1-36 located in the open compartments, while beds from #37-54 are on the side, thus opposite to compartments, odd numbers are lower berths, even – upper. Bed reservation required. 'Platskartnyi' carriages used in Local, Passenger & Express trains 
• 'Kupe' (купе) –  2^nd class sleeper carriage (2/4) with 'closed' compartments for 4 passengers, odd numbers are lower beds, even – upper. Bed reservation required. 'Kupe' carriages used in Local, Passenger & Express trains
• 'Soft' (мягкий) - 2^nd class sleeper carriage (2/3) with 'closed' compartments for 3 passengers (standard RIC type), where all 3 beds located are located on one side of the compartment. Usually this type of carriages used by RZD in international trains (from Moscow to Budapest, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris etc.), bed reservation required
• 'Lux' ('люкс' or as well known as 'СВ') – 1^st sleeper carriage (1/2) with compartments for 2 passengers, both beds are lower ones, bed reservation required. 'Lux' carriages used in Local, Passenger & Express trains 

Discounts, special offers & ways to save money for passengers traveling in Russia (RZD):

• Since March 2013 Russian Railways (RZD) introduced new ticket price scheme for rail journeys within Russia - earlier purchase gives cheaper price, so when passengers buying ticket 45 days in advance (start of ticket sale for Russian domestic tickets) he or she will pay the lowest possible fare. While at the same time, passenger buying same ticket on the day of departure will pay higher price compared to standard tariff. At the moment such "dynamic price scheme" works only for routes: Moscow-Saint Petersburg-Moscow, Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Moscow, Moscow-Voronezh-Moscow, Moscow-Smolensk-Moscow, Saint Petersburg-Nizhny Novgorod-Saint Petersburg & Saint Petersburg-Voronezh-Saint Petersburg, while since May 26, 2013 a dozen other RZD routes will be added
• On certain routes domestic RZD also offers special price for tickets bought in advance (offer "Plan in advance"), while buying tickets for 'kupe' carriages 45-41 days in advance passenger received 40% discount & 40-31 days - 20% discount (although at the same time purchase 15-11 days in advance will be accompanied by ticket price 5% higher, less than 10 days in advance - 10% higher)
• Another way to save on rail tickets in Russia is to take advantage of seasonal indexations of domestic rail tariff in Russia. The 2013 table ('kupe' and 'lux' carriages) as follows:

(basically this means that passenger will pay only 50% of the regular fare in 'kupe' or 'Lux/SV' carriages on a long distance routes once he or she start their journey on May 9, although on the contrary passenger pays from 5% to 20% extra (compared to standard fare) once he or she start the journey during summer vacations time or in late December)

Traveling by tain in Russia can be rather expensive, especially for passengers planning to visit many destinations or travel to the far east parts of Russian Federation. For instance journey on one of the most popular travel routes from Moscow to Vladivostok well-known Russian train Rossija (#1/2) lasts 9259 km and 145 hours, while ticket for such experience in 'kupe' carriage costs roughly around 20k rubles (~500 euro) one way, expensive isn't it?

However there are some tricks on how to save some money on such long distance travels in Russia. One of them is to international train tickets for domestic Russian journeys. Probably best offer here comes from countries like Slovakia, Serbia and Bulgaria. Slovak & Bulgarian Railwys sell special CityStar tickets to Russia, which under certain conditions can be a good option for Trans Siberian travel. Let's look at some numbers of Slovakia-Russia CityStar (via Ukraine): CityStar ticket (Russia >1500km) itself costs 134,40 euro (one adult), while next passenger pays only 50% or 67,2 euro, and that is the price for return ticket any station in Slovakia-Vladivostok-any station in Slovakia. Although it is only price of ticket, while potential passengers will still need to buy sleeper reservations for almost all the train they take (unfortunately since a few years ago sleeper reservation for Russian trains aren't that cheap as they used to be, but still). For example reservation from Bratislava to Moscow (via Zilina/Kosice and  Ukraine) costs only 29 euro (everyday direct carriage connects capital of Slovakia to Moscow), from Moscow to Vladivostok 231 euro, from Moskva to Irkutsk 155 euro. from Irkutsk to Vladivostok 134 euro etc.)

Similar international ticket 'trick' can be played using MPT tickets, for instance for traveling from Moscow to Irkutsk it can be cheaper to purchase international ticket Moscow-Irkutsk-first station in Mongolia (Suhbaatar) and then just get additional reservation Moscow-Irkutsk

International Train Service:

Tariffs for international tickets used by Russian Railways (RZD):

• for connection to Europe it is special East-West tariff, tariff currency - Euro
• for connection to former USSR countries it is special MGPT 'interstate' (межгосударственный) tariff, which is cheaper than East-West, but more expensive than domestic one, tariff currency – Swiss Francs
• for connections to China, Mongolia, Vietnam & North Korea it is MPT tariff, tariff currency – Swiss Francs

a) Regular discounts

• 50% discount on Hungarian part for return tickets from Russia to Hungary (also 40% discount on Hungarian part for return ticket from Russia to Serbia (via Hungary)
• 30% discount for seniors (>60 years old) & youth (<26 years old) for tickets from Russia to Germany & France
• 20% to 40% discount for groups (6 & more passengers) to many European countries (except Poland)
• Finland: mini-group (at list one adult and one child) discount of 30% of for every adult and 50% for every child
• 10% discount for return tickets in connection from Russia to Serbia (via Romania), from Russia to Serbia (via Hungary), from Russia to Montenegro(via Romania, Serbia), from Russia to Bulgaria (via Romania), from Russia to Romania (via Ukraine)
• 20% discount for Austrian part for Russia-Austria return tickets via Brest (gr.)
  
• 5% off for Russia-Hungary return connection (via Brest)
• 20% discount for return tickets from Russia   Mongolia & North Korea  

b) Special offers (SparSchiene)

Not available

c) CityStars

Similar offer in Russia is called 'Ekonomnye ceny' (Экономные цены) and is available for Russia-Germany; Russia-Serbia (via Romania and Bulgaria); Russia-Montenegro (via Romania and Bulgaria), Russia-Slovakia & Russia-Bulgaria connections

How to Buy Train Tickets in Russia:

National (domestic), interstate (to CIS countries) and some international (Global Price fares to Finland, Germany & France) tickets can be purchased via RZD website - www.ticket.rzd.ru (only in Russian)

Do you still have further questions or want to share your own travel experience? You are welcome on our Forum page

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