Bratislava-lvov?

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Hi.
A group of 3 from Slovenia will be travelling to Lvov in April. I'm asking you what's the best option for us. We'd like to travel via Bratislava.
I was informed that City Star ticket from Slovenia to any station(in our case Čierna nad Tisou) in Slovakia would cost 45eur per person. Then we could buy a return ticket Čierna nad Tisou-Lvov. What's the price for this part of journey. Then we need a sleeper reservation which should be 19eur from Bratislava to Lvov one way as I red in another post. Is it possible to buy these tickets outside Slovakia? We'd like to travel by direct train from Bratislava-Lvov.
Another option would be to buy City Star ticket in Bratislava. What's the City Star ticket price Bratislava-Lvov-Bratislava?
Thanks for your help.

Darjan

I was informed that City Star ticket from Slovenia to any station(in our case Čierna nad Tisou) in Slovakia would cost 45eur per person.

That is a really good price, so your choice here is the best, just go with Slovenia-Bratislava-Cierna CityStar (just make sure you give the cashier correct route within Slovakia: carriages to Ukraine run via Zilina-Poprad-Kosice route). CityStar ZSSK-UZ isn't that good anyway to buy it for Bratislava-UZ connections

Then we could buy a return ticket Čierna nad Tisou-Lvov. What's the price for this part of journey.

Return ticket with ZSSK-UZ 30% discount will cost app. 25 EUR per person. But since there are 3 passengers, then it makes sense to purchase CityStar ZSSK<100 UZ<500km, it should be app. 30 EUR (or maybe even a bit less since UZ lowered fare for UZ part) for the first passenger and 1/2 for the others, thus making app. 60 EUR for all three of you.

Then we need a sleeper reservation which should be 19eur from Bratislava to Lvov one way as I red in another post.

Yes, it is still 19 EUR, but you can actually save 5 EUR, if you purchase Kosice-Lviv sleeper (14 EUR) and use standard ZSSK seating carriage on leg Bratislava-Kosice. Anyway it is the same R 609 and ride is during the day. Or purchase reservation to RZD carriage Bratislava-Moscow, sleepers are cheaper there.

Is it possible to buy these tickets outside Slovakia?

Carriages on the route, both RZD and UZ are in the EPA, so you shouldn't have problems purchasing it anywhere with access to the EPA reservation system. But it is not a good idea to purchase ticket Cierna-Lviv anywhere besides Slovakia or Ukraine, since there are special discount applies and it won't be available if you do purchase tickets anywhere else.

Thanks for your help. Yes, the City Star ticket from Slovenia would be the best idea.
Unfortunately I got an answer from Slovenian Railways that's impossible to buy/reserve such carriages(Bratislava-Lvov) in Slovenia.
I assume I shouldn't have problems to purchase these carriages at any station in Austria 60 day in advance? Because it would be good idea to purchase it well in advance.

Unfortunately I got an answer from Slovenian Railways that's impossible to buy/reserve such carriages(Bratislava-Lvov) in Slovenia.

Hmm... hard to believe that SZ doesn't have access to the any all European reservation system. Maybe ticket cashier just wasn't skillful enough? Because those couple carriages aren't easy to spot, because you need to enter train R 609, route Bratislava hl.st.-Lvov and then chose either 1/1, 2/2 or 2/3, but not just Bratislava-Lvov. So maybe it worth trying another time with more detailed instructions to cashier

I assume I shouldn't have problems to purchase these carriages at any station in Austria 60 day in advance?

Yes, with OeBB it's definitely not a problem. Here is the example of reservation for Zilina-Moscow carriage (since 09/2010 substituted with Bratislava-Moscow)

I agree 'cause they also offered me return ticket price for Čierna-Lvov leg(47EUR), so there must be European computerized system

...they also offered me return ticket price for Čierna-Lvov leg(47EUR), so there must be European computerized system

Well, not necessarily you need access to the European system here. The fare can be simply taken from standard East-West tariff book (in paper version or computerized version 'incorporated' into Slovenian ticket system). In case of tickets selling you don't need access to the real time information, cashier just adds sums of Chop(gr)-Lvov and Chop(gr)-Ceirna legs and multiplies it by two. While in case of reserving specific seat on specific train, cashier actually needs real time access to the general (in this case one of the European) systems in order to see availability, be able to 'remove' specific seat etc.

Anyway, we would probably recommend to try once more, maybe even print out sample reservation from previous post, so cashier in Slovenia can actually see "realness" of the carriage. Even if your try won't be successful, we doubt that both RZD and UZ carriages from Bratislava are really busy, so that you can't purchase reservation before departure. Plus there is always an option of going with the same trains (as carriages) till Chop and boarding there cheap Ukrainian domestic trains till Lviv

So by making sleeping reservation on route Bratislava-Lvov correct train is R 609, Košice-Lvov R 609 or 8815?, Lvov-Bratislava R604 or 15? According to Slovakian railways sleeper costs 10EUR per way on route Bratislava-Lviv so they probably mean russian carriage. What's the difference between russian and ukrainian carriage, cause both are 2/3. Which is better to take?

So by making sleeping reservation on route Bratislava-Lvov correct train is R 609, Košice-Lvov R 609 or 8815?, Lvov-Bratislava R604 or 15?

As a rule, such international carriages attached to local trains in the reservation systems can be seen with train number of those local ones according to the departing station. Thus carriages Bratislava-Lviv/Kyiv/Moscow departing from Bratislava will go under 609 R, but while departing Kosice already 8815, Cierna - 8860 etc. Same story on the way back - carriage Moscow-Bratislava runs with train 15 ("Tisza"), but during the reservation the number might have additional letters, for instance in European systems it will be 15VJ till Chop and 15UJ from Chop. With UZ carriages (going with train #7) it will be 7KJ, so it is good to give the cashier those letter endings as well, it might simplify her/his job.
Also you can write down actual number of those carriages: Bratislava-Moscow (#382), Bratislava-Lviv (#384) and Bratislava-Kyiv (#385), so you can make sure you purchase in the one you want

According to Slovakian railways sleeper costs 10EUR per way on route Bratislava-Lviv so they probably mean russian carriage.

Yes, RZD carriages in such case always cheaper, since besides higher fare UZ also charges also VAT for all the reservations (as far as we remember, it is 18%)

What's the difference between russian and ukrainian carriage, cause both are 2/3. Which is better to take?

In most cases RZD carriages are a bit newer, but carriage #385 (Bratislava-Kyiv) has a small unique feature - you pay for 2/3, but in reality it will be 2/2 (middle berth just removed from sale). Same feature is in Budapest-Kyiv and Belgrade-Kyiv UZ carriages, but not in any RZD or UZ carriages Bratislava/Budapest-Lviv. Seems like a strange situation, but we don't have any particular explanation here, maybe it's just some kind of 'promo' from UZ, maybe something else, anyway they sell 2/2 for the fare 2/3 already for many years on route to/from Bratislava/Budapest.

Thanks a lot, very interesting
One more question: Since we are 3 of us travelling together it's probably better to avoid this #385 carriage from Bratislava if we want to travel in the same sleeping compartment? Or they will sell middle berth to us to be in the same compartment. We'll be probably travelling on Tuesday. That day as I know #384 isn't running. As I understood #385 is UZ carriage and #382 RZD. So this special "promo"(2/2 in 2/3) applies only to #385 not to #382?

Since we are 3 of us travelling together it's probably better to avoid this #385 carriage from Bratislava if we want to travel in the same sleeping compartment? Or they will sell middle berth to us to be in the same compartment.

No, middle berth is removed from sale at all, so if you need 3 sleeper reservations they will just sell you two in one compartment and third in the other, but nobody forbids you to spend all the time in one compartment and use middle berth on your own. In most cases RIC compartments are rather congested when having 3 passengers, so that is why UZ 'promo' 2/2 is appreciated by many passengers, but if all of you are together, then maybe compartment won't feel crowded

  We'll be probably travelling on Tuesday. That day as I know #384 isn't running.

Yes, Bratislava-Lviv carriage (#384) runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Bratislava, other days of the week there is Bratislava-Kyiv (#385) carriage, so in total there are UZ carriages from Bratislava everyday - two days of the week to Lviv and five to Kyiv.

As I understood #385 is UZ carriage and #382 RZD. So this special "promo"(2/2 in 2/3) applies only to #385 not to #382?

Yes, #382 is Bratislava-Moscow RZD carriage and #385 is UZ Bratislava-Kyiv. 2/2 for the price of 2/3 is sold only in #385

In another post below topic Bratislava-St. Petersburg I was reading about situation that's not possible to reserve RDZ carriage in advance on route Kiev-Budapest by train 15 Tisza(only after the train actually leaves Moscow).  We're gonna take the same train 15 and RDZ carriage back on route Lviv-Bratislava. Will be possible to reserve this carriage in advance in this case? Thanks again.

We're gonna take the same train 15 and RDZ carriage back on route Lviv-Bratislava. Will be possible to reserve this carriage in advance in this case?

Unfortunately, but probably no. The situation with any reservations for RZD transit carriages is rather absurd. First of all, Ukrainian and Russian system concerning international trains aren't synchronized or even 'connected', as result in Ukraine (where still all international tickets are handwritten) there is simply no way to access life time info about availability of seats in RZD carriages. In some cases, like Moscow-Venice carriage (where more simplified "global price" is used), it is possible to fax from Kyiv to Moscow with request to reserve seat from Kyiv (or any other UZ station) for RZD Venice carriage. But, as you can guess, this is really complicated enterprise. And even more RZD in most cases simply blocks in advance purchase of reservations from any other station besides Moscow (even russian Briansk, for instance) and they definitely don't give quota to UZ for selling tickets in RZD carriages, especially when there is mirroring UZ carriage running.
So the only minimal hope in your case, is so called norm of the inverse return when RZD gives ZSSK small quota, so ZSSK can sell those  reservations for the return Moscow-Bratislava. But even in this case it is probably limited only to reservations Moscow-Slovakia or, if lucky, RZD-Slovakia, but we doubt that ZSSK will sell any UZ-Slovakia for RZD carriage. But anyway you might ask, maybe you will be lucky.

btw, it will be good if you can share your experience after you get back, so we and other interested potential passengers can get some actual news from the field

We can call it russian bureaucracy
I'll share my experience despite we'll probably take RDZ carriage onward(Brat/Kosice-Lviv) and UZ carriage back(Lviv-Brat) to make it easier for us and cashier

we'll probably take RDZ carriage onward(Brat/Kosice-Lviv)

In this case Kosice-Lviv probably loses its sense, since difference between Bratislava-Lviv and Kosice-Lviv with RZD will be minimal or even non-existing.

I'll share my experience...

Great, will wait for it. It is always interesting when someone "explores" Central-Eastern European rail tricks 

some fare infos:
City Star Bratislava-Lviv: 1. passenger 63 EUR(2nd pass. 50% off and so on)
City Star Čierna nad Tisou-Lviv: 35 EUR
regular return Čierna nad Tisou-Lviv: 31 EUR