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1
« on: January 27, 2013, 01:56:17 am »
Last year, an elektrichka (ED9M IIRC) was operating a daytime service on Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan, a welcome alternative to the slow, lower-tier night train.
This daytime service is now neither displayed by Hafas or RZD. Has it been scrapped or is just not bookable online?
2
« on: June 13, 2011, 05:09:57 pm »
For riding single and with private shower - 1Г of Grand Express is cheaper than 1M of Red Arrow. More cheap single with private shower - only 1M in 003/004 "Express"
Many thanks for those usueful details. What about 1H on Grand Express? Does itonly include a washbasin?
3
« on: June 12, 2011, 01:25:20 am »
Thanks for the tips   I will probbaly go for 002/003 or 004/005. Ideally, I d like a single cabin, with private bathroom. Is that only 1A/1M or can it be available in 1Б?
4
« on: June 11, 2011, 11:24:42 pm »
Checking express3 is a very interesting exercise
On Moscow-St Petersburg, there are unexpectedly quite many night trains, but it's getting a bit hard to make up my mind (apart than "Grand Express" which seems a bit overrated). Which ones shall I favour? What is the difference between 1Б "Business" and 1Л "Deluxe" ?
5
« on: June 11, 2011, 01:59:00 am »
I ve recently made a booking with a hotel in St-Petersburg, but it seems drgaging its feet with sending me the official invitation which I need to include in my visa application.
Does anyone know a good, cheap, diligent invitation provider?
Thx a lot for any tip ;-)
6
« on: May 22, 2011, 11:12:58 am »
That s weird, because your table gives a quote for Deluxe WL on "Polonez", and so does RZD website...
7
« on: May 17, 2011, 12:18:13 am »
The Excel Table show asomehow cheaper supplement fare in Deluxe WL on "Polonesz" than on "Moskva-Express" for Warsaw-Moscow? Is such Deluxe accommodation the same from one train to another?
8
« on: May 08, 2011, 11:55:25 pm »
No, historically it was St.Petersburg-Moscow trains (№1/2 during imperial times and later "Red Arrow" during Soviet times), but in second half of 20th century "Rossya" already positioned as the main train, since it runs from the capital till farthest destination and across the whole nation etc.
I see. "Krasnaya Strela" seems to rank still very high, even though "Grand Express" seems even higher in the scale. AFAIK, SNCF is party to EW Fares, isn't it? Yes, but it doesn't stop SNCF from using global fare on the only trains/direct carriages. Same story with SCIC-NRT substituted by SNCF with SCIC-IRT (global price).
I see, but perhaps RZD should have bargained a dual-system... What about Saarbrücken Hbf - Moscow? Is EWT+Reservation available on the current Paris-Moscow through-car? What do SCIC-NRT and SCIC-IRT mean?
9
« on: May 05, 2011, 11:07:32 pm »
I have indeed noticed that "Rossya" seems to have brand-new sleeping-cars. It is positioned by RZD as main train of Russian Federation, so it would be surprising not to see the newest available cars in that train. But expensive fare comes also from so called "фирменность" (probably best to translate as "branded") of carriages in the train, making sleeper reservation (reservierung) part of the ticket more expensive.
I had the impression that "Baikal" Moscow-Irkutsk actually ranked above "Rossya"... Another side issue: do yo have an idea of the kind of fares (EW+Reservation or Global fares?) applicable to the Nice-Moscow sleeper? Well, it is France, so Global fare it is, as well as with Moscow-Venice carriage. The only good thing is that RZD concerning #17/18 train have Global fare table for any interstate route (at least they announced it like this), even something like Smolensk-Brest. We haven't seen the full table, but as we said earlier, 'Ekspress' now allows to see the fare real time online. So, for instance, Moscow-Terespol (for 19/05) 2/3 cost 4625.6 RUB, Moscow-Milan - 11361.1 RUB etc.
AFAIK, SNCF is party to EW Fares, isn't it? So, one my not travel Vienna-Moscow with this train using EW Fare + Reservation then? For the current through-car Paris-Moscow, I believe that no global fares apply. At least, there is still a TCV Paris-Forbach (fr).
10
« on: May 04, 2011, 11:34:56 pm »
That is classic RZD, they wanted to limit use of this non premium carriages for domestic purposes and instead force people to buy tickets for "branded" main route carriages of the same 'Rossiya' train, thus pay more.
I have indeed noticed that "Rossya" seems to have brand-new sleeping-cars. Does it still convey the usual 3-class offer, or are there some Deluxe cars nw as well? Hmm, as far as we know, not possible. But you can always email CD and ask, they tend to answer questions rather fast.
I'll try that in the coming days.
Is its possible to travel from Ulan-Ude with :
- EWF Ticket Frankfurt (O) (Gr) -> Naushki (Gr)
+
- Reservation Ulan-Ude -> Ulanbataar or Beijing
+
- Ticket (MGPT or Mongolian fare ?) Naushki (Gr) -> Ulanbataar ?
This is a tricky question, since on leg Ulan-Ude ->Naushki (Gr) you would have ticket and reservation issued with different tariffs, which is, as far as we know, not allowed. But on the contrary, in theory you are totally ok, since you have all the legs covered. Once GyuriFT (who is known specialist in the tariff questions), specifically asked RZD official on one of the forums about possibility of having East-West tariff ticket (in his case CityStar) till gr. point (Tumangan, Naushki etc.) and chance to buy MPT reservation to it (at that time E-W reservation were already twice-three time more expensive), the official said that such trick wouldn't work since specifically ticket is issued with one tariff, while reservation with the other.
But, since it is such tricky thing, we would not be surprised if some cashier somewhere on periphery will sell you MPT reservation for E-W ticket. We heard stories when cashiers actually managed to sell cheap as dirt domestic reservation to E-W ticket. But you can't guess how lucky you can be in this matter
I indeed see the rationale, but on ethe other hand, as EW Reservation is deerer that MGPT Reservation, it doesn't seem to make too much sense... Pity that there are no detailed, published MPT/MGPT tables :-( Another side issue: do yo have an idea of the kind of fares (EW+Reservation or Global fares?) applicable to the Nice-Moscow sleeper? I presume that the reply is likely to be repeated on the Paris-Moscow sleeper due from December.
11
« on: May 03, 2011, 10:02:35 pm »
And even more weird that according to RZD website Moscow-Pyongyang with RZD is cheaper than Moscow-Pyongyang with Koreans, but coefficient for sleepers with RZD is much higher comparing to one with Mongolian, Chinese or Korean sleepers. The only explanation here is that RZD actually sells ticket Moscow-Pyongyang, but reservation only till Tumangan (since RZD carriages go only till that point)
What do you mean by coefficient? According to RZD you can buy tickets for those carriages only till Tumangan.
Very weird, that you may only travel on that Sleeping-car if you have a ticket to a forbidden station... No, CD sells only few types of tickets online and such complicated ones aren't in those few. So we afraid you will have to buy in person at the ticket counter. As result, it actually might make sense to go a bit further from Czech Republic and get your ticket already in Slovakia, but anyway it is totally your choice.
The Czech Republic, and especially the stations of Cheb and Domazlice aren't that far from home, so shouldn't be too a big problem, especially as I travel once in a while through Germany. Anyway, isn't it possible to buy this by phone and have it mailed? No travel agency known to work with CD? Since we don't have access to real time info in this case, then we can only assume, RZD website lists Irkutsk-Bejing via Naushki ticket+reservation 311 CHF, reservation part in this case shouldn't be very high, we would say around 50-60 CHF, adjust a bit for Naushki-Bejing ticket and you get the fare a bit more than 200 CHF. Reservations 2/4 Naushki-Ulan-Baator and Ulan-Baator-Bejing shouldn't cost a lot, max 100 CHF in total.
Is its possible to travel from Ulan-Ude with : - EWF Ticket Frankfurt (O) (Gr) -> Naushki (Gr) + - Reservation Ulan-Ude -> Ulanbataar or Beijing + - Ticket (MGPT or Mongolian fare ?) Naushki (Gr) -> Ulanbataar ?
12
« on: May 03, 2011, 02:27:22 am »
Not that recent, there are two Russian carriages running till Tumangan with "Rossiya" #1/2 train since Dec. 2010 (#25 and #26). Officially they are connected with domestic Korean train Tumangan-Pyongyang. Previously running carriages via China canceled.
Meaning that one may now travel via Tumangan without restrictions? ;-) Whats is weird is that RZD gives both fares quotes for Moscow-Pyongyang, rather than Moscow-Pyongyang (CCMI WL) and Moscow-Tumangan (RZD WL) Also, as far as we know, RZD closed sale of tickets for this new carriages for any domestic routes in Russia.
Even if your ticket is to Kasan? Primarily meaning http://www.express-3.ru/ , as far as we know, it the only webresource actually showing real time international fares (including MPT). But in order to gain access, you need paid subscription ("Доступ к системе "АСУ Экспресс" в справочном режиме можно получить, оформив подписку на данную услугу"). But on Russian forums there are people with access to such info, so if you really interested we can point out whom to ask Yes I could be interested, thanks ;-) Yep, Frankfurt (O) (Gr) - Naushki (Gr) cost 217.9 EUR
Is is available on-line ? Next question is: how much for Naushki (Gr) - Beijing, possibly with a stopover in Ulaan-Baatar... A real pity that DB didn't take over DR membership of MGPT ;-) Actually there are two CityStars ZSSK-RZD, one is via UZ and the other one via PKP-BC. But the later is almost twice as expensive (233 vs. 120 EUR). Plus most of foreign travelers tend to avoid Belarus, because of extra visa problems.
I see your point, but travelling via Slovakia and then the Ukraine isn't always satisfactory, especially if you leave in Northwest Europe. Getting to Zilina, not to mention Bratislava, is quite a detour, and the sleepers running via Brest seem better than those via Chop.
13
« on: May 03, 2011, 01:54:40 am »
We shall see, but round 2013, there shall be interesting developments - Warsaw-Terespol fully upgraded to 160km/h - CMK upgraded to 200 km/h - Westbahn fully upgraded to 200km/h, at least on Vienna-Wels - new rebuilt portion on Genoa-Ventimiglia (San Lorenzo-Andorra: 20 km double-track, 200km/h) Right now, OIC+EC via Wörgl and Innsbruck (30-min transit) means that Vienna-Milano can be made in 11h30. Via Rosenheim, you can save 1 hr. With a more limited stopping pattern + no reversal at Verona + 200km/h throughout on Vienna-Wels, the journey time on Vienna-Milano could fall below 9 hrs. In view all this, Nice-Brest Litovsk in 22 hrs isn't unthinkable. The funny thing is that during Soviet times there were actually direct carriages from Moscow to Istanbul, London, Madrid, Rome and Geneva
Yes, I remember that. London was Hoek van Holland actually, while this time it could well be the Barlow trainshed of St-Pancras ;-) Fingers crossed ;-)
14
« on: May 02, 2011, 11:20:27 pm »
If you intend to travel a bit more around Nice by train, perhaps Carte Isabelle will be relevant to you.
For EUR 12, you wil enjoy unlimited travel on regional services (excluding the very scenic, yet non-SNCF Nice-Digne line), anywhere further East from Fréjus, with no restricted hours.
Please also note that French km-based fare, as sold by SNCF (and Raileurope?) is usually a bit cheaper than French TCV sold outside France.
15
« on: May 02, 2011, 11:12:21 pm »
Do BC and RZD publish MPT and MGPT fares somewhere? Well, MGPT fares you can actually check on BC and RZD websites (and even purchase tickets), since both websites offer access to "Ekspress" system.
Yes, should have noticed this myself... Interestingly, RZD website, english version, as last updated, now shows 2 different fares for journeys to North Korea via Khasan/Tumangan: North Korean and Russian sleeping-cars. Seems very recent. It also seems that there are RZD sleeping-cars Novossibirsk-Beijing running via Naushki, on supposedly Chinese-fitted Train 003/004. With MPT it is a bit more complicated, since neither BC or RZD publish there tariff tables. With RZD you can actually check real time MPT fares, but the service is available either for cashiers (thus you need to go to the ticket counter yourself and ask) or on paid website, thus no free online source. Paid website, what do you exactly mean? If MPT fares are not publically avialable while only a sample of MGPT fares is advertised, comparing fare options isn't gonna be that easy. And no, there is no CityStar from Poland or Czech Republic to Russia or Belarus. CityStars to Russia available only from Slovakia, Serbia and Bulgaria. With PKP-RZD the only discounts are for groups >6 and children (more here http://pass.rzd.ru/isvp/public/pass?STRUCTURE_ID=737)
The only convenience with Czech CD, is that they sell tickets to and within Russia with 30% from standard East-West fare, so jiizdenka shows already fare with discount.
A real pity then, as Sparpreis 25 is a bit too much rigid. So, I can get 30% off the full fare Frankfurt (O) (Gr) - Naushki (Gr) f I buy such ticket from CD? Is City-Star Slovakia-Russia also valid via Warsaw? or Shall I only travel via Chop (and then Bryansk) ? And I actually meant Terespol-Naushki and Terespol-Vladivostok, sorry for this late-evening confusion ;-)
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