Ukraine (UZ)
Country info: Ukraine (Україна)
Rail companies: UZ (Українська Залізниця)
Train Ticket purchase - www.booking.uz.gov.ua
Currency: 1 euro = app. 30 Ukrainian Hryvna (UAH)
Train travel in Ukraine: train types, tickets, fares, discounts & other useful info
National Train Service:
Train types in Ukraine: City (міський), Suburban (приміський), Regional (регіональний), Regional Express (регіональний експрес), InterCity, InterCity+ & long distance overnight trains (Night Passenger (нічний пасажирський), Night Fast (нічний швидкий), Night Express (нічний експрес))
Long distance overnight trains (Passenger, Fast or Express) can also be 'upgraded' & have so-called 'brand', thus making these trains 'Branded Trains' (фірмові потяги). UZ 'branded' trains are easy to recognize since they usually have special train name (e.g. 'Lviv' for Kyiv to Lviv, 'Chornomorets' for Kyiv to Odesa, 'Oberig' for Kyiv to Kharkiv), painted in their own unique livery, have newer carriages & faster travel time compared to other trains on the same route
- City (marked as 'M' on UZ website): train service within the city boundaries, fixed fare no matter how many stops passenger travels. Currently 'City' trains are running only in Kyiv as a circular route around the city (used to run also in Lviv), no seat reservation required
- Suburban / Commuter (marked as 'П' on UZ website ): commuter service around big cities & towns all over Ukraine, UZ suburban trains (usually it's either EMU or DMU) mainly run for up to 200km routes, special commuter tariff applies. UZ suburban trains have 4 digit number starting with 6***
- Regional (marked as 'P' on UZ website): daytime trains (with average route speed <70km/h) connecting bigger cities with smaller towns (sometimes duplicating suburban routes, but having less stops and faster speed), seat reservation required. Regional trains usually have 3 digit number starting with 8**
- Regional Express (marked as 'PE' on UZ website): daytime fast trains (with average route speed >70km/h) connecting major Ukrainian cities & towns, unlike regional trains usually have 1st class seats, seat reservation required. Regional Express trains have 3 digit number starting with 7**
- InterCity (marked as 'IC' on UZ website): daytime express trains (with average route speed >80km/h) connecting major Ukrainian cities, seat reservation required. UZ InterCity trains usually have 3 digit number starting with 7**
- InterCity+ (marked as 'IC+'): daytime express trains (with average route speed >90km/h) connecting major Ukrainian cities, seat reservation required. UZ InterCity+ trains usually have 3 digit number starting with 7**
- Night Passenger (marked as 'НП' on UZ website ): long-distance overnight service with average route speed <50km/hour, seat/bed reservation required. UZ Night Passenger trains usually have 3 digit number starting with 3**, 4**, 5** or 6**
- Night Fast (marked as 'НШ' on UZ website): long-distance overnight service with average route speed >50km/hour, seat/bed reservation required. UZ Night Fast trains usually have 3 digit number within the range between 1 & 150, also many of the 2** are Night Fast trains
- Night Express (marked as 'НЕ' on UZ website): long-distance overnight express service with average route speed >70km/hour, seat/bed reservation required. UZ Night Express trains usually have 3 digit number within the range between 1 & 150
(Besides the above train categories Ukrainian Railways also have additional international train categories of EuroCity (EC) and EuroNight (EN) trains, although currently niether EC or EN trains are in service)
Types of carriages in UZ trains:
- Common (загальний): mainly 'platskartnyi' couchette carriage where not 54 berths (as in usual 'platskartnyi') are sold, but 81 seats, thus basically turning couchtte carriage into seating carriage, seat reservation compulsory (used in some Night Passenger trains)
- Sitting (сидячий): various seating carriages used in Regional, Regional Express, InterCity and InterCity+ trains, can be aircraft type salon (1st, 2nd or 3rd class) or compartments (1st class)
- Platskartnyi (плацкартний): 3rd class couchette carriage (3/6) with an open compartments for 54 beds (berths #1-36 located in the open compartments, while those #37-54 are on the side, thus opposite to compartments, odd numbers are lower berths, even – upper. Bed reservation required. 'Platskartnyi' carriages can be found in Night Passenger, Night Fast & Night Express trains
- Kupe (купе): 2nd class sleeper carriage (2/4) with 'closed' compartments for 4 passengers, odd numbers are lower beds, even – upper. Bed reservation required. 'Kupe' carriages can be found in Night Passenger, Night Fast & Night Express trains
- Soft (м’який): 2nd class sleeper carriage (2/3) with 'closed' compartments for max. 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 UZ in international trains (from Kyiv to Budapest, Bratisalava, Warsaw, etc.), bed reservation required
- Lux ('люкс' or as well known as 'СВ'): 1st sleeper carriage (1/2) with compartments for 2 passengers, both beds are lower ones, bed reservation required. 'Lux' carriages can be found in Night Passenger, Night Fast & Night Express trains
Discounts, special offers & ways to save money for passengers traveling by train in Ukraine (UZ):
Although Ukraine is one of the cheapest countries in Europe when it comes to train ticket fares (e.g. passengers can easily travel to/from all the major cities for as low as 5-15 euro using fast daytime train or overnight sleeper train), but still it does not mean that potential passengers have no options when it comes to saving some money. We offer here a few tips on how to make your train journey with UZ even cheaper:
- Train type matters: it sounds rather logic when we say that taking regional or suburban train will be cheaper than using InterCity or Night Express. But what to do when cheap regional or suburban trains are not available for long-distance connection or using them will require change(s)? On long distance journeys in Ukraine passengers can save money by giving preference to 'non-branded' Night Passenger or Night Fast trains instead of 'branded' Night Fast & Night Express. Trick is that on many major lines in Ukraine rather often happens that Night Passenger, Night Fast and Night Express trains duplicate the same route (and even travel time isn't that different either), but on the contrary price passenger pays differs a lot (sometimes 3rd class couchette ticket in 'branded' train can cost the same as 2nd class 'kupe' sleeper in ordinary Night Passenger train). To give an example, let's take popular Kyiv to Lviv connection - 'kupe' in the fancy branded 'Lviv' train (# 91/92) making the journey in 7:25 cost roughly around 325 UAH (base price), while with the less fancy # 143 train making the journey between Kyiv and Lviv in 8:30 it's 240 UAH. Why to pay more if you ok sleeping an extra hour on the overnight train?
- Day of the week matters: Ukrainian Railways (UZ) differentiates ticket fares depending on the day of the week your trip starts. What it means is that for trains departing on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (off-peak days) passenger pays 10% less, while at the same time for trains departing on Fridays and Sundays (peak days) 10% more. For trains departing on Monday, Thursday & Saturday ticket fare is at the base level. For the daytime InterCity trains (Kyiv to Lviv, Kyiv to Kharkiv, Kyiv to Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv to Odesa) base fare applies for departures on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, 10% discount on Thursdays & Saturdays, while 10% more expensive on Fridays & Sundays.
- Period of the year matters: Besides day of the week difference in ticket fares UZ as well has special seasonal coefficients. It means that during 'low-season' periods passenger pays less, while during 'high-season' periods more - same route & same trains, but different ticket price just because it is different day in the calendar, and obviously knowing coefficients table can save passenger some money:
|
Train Departure Period |
Number of Days |
Indexation Coefficient |
|
01.01 - 20.01 |
20 |
1,02 |
|
21.01 - 31.01 |
11 |
0,86 |
|
01.02 - 29.02 |
29 |
0,95 |
|
01.03 - 31.03 |
31 |
1,01 |
|
01.04 - 27.04 |
27 |
1,02 |
|
28.04 - 08.05 |
11 |
1,03 |
|
09.05 |
1 |
0,80 |
|
10.05 - 31.05 |
22 |
1,01 |
|
01.06 - 31.08 |
92 |
1,07 |
|
01.09 - 30.09 |
30 |
1,02 |
|
01.10 - 24.12 |
85 |
0,93 |
|
25.12 - 30.12 |
6 |
1,10 |
|
31.12 |
1 |
0,70 |
International Train Service:
Tariffs for the international tickets used by Ukrainian Railways:
- for connections to European countries - East-West tariff, currency - Euro
- for connections to former Soviet republics - MGPT 'interstate' tariff, MGPT tariff currency – Swiss Francs
a) Regular discounts
- Ukraine-Austria: 40% discount for Ukrainian, 30% off Slovak & 20% off Austrian leg for return tickets (NB: info needs to be checked/updated!)
- Ukraine-Slovakia: 50% discount on both Ukrainian & Slovak leg for one way & return tickets
- Ukraine-Hungary: 40% discount on Ukrainian leg & 50% off Hungarian for both one way & return tickets
- Ukraine-Serbia/FYR Macedonia: 50% discount on Ukrainian, 40% off Serbian & 50% off Hungarian part for return tickets (NB: info needs to be checked/updated!)
- Ukraine-Czech Republic (via Poland): 30% discount on Ukrainian, 20% off Polish & 20% off Czech leg for both one way & return tickets (discount was canceled)
- Ukraine-Czech Republic (via Slovakia): 50% discount on Ukrainian, 50% off Slovak & 50% of Czech leg for both one way & return tickets
- Ukraine-Poland: 30% discount on Ukrainian & Polish leg (bigger/other discount applies on some particular trains, please see below)
- Ukraine-Poland: for the most popular & newly introduced trains UZ & PKP agreed on a special discounted offers (up to 80% off from the usual SCIC-East-West tariff) and thanks to our Ukrainian colleague Maxy we can share tabels of the current fares (ticket+reservation) for all those trains:
|
Train №67/68 Kyiv-Warsaw |
Ticket Fare from Kyiv (2nd class, incl. 2/3 bed "Triple" berth reservation) |
Ticket Fare from Kyiv (2nd class, incl. 2/2 bed "Double" berth reservation) |
Ticket Fare from Kyiv (1st class, incl. 1/1 bed "Single" berth reservation) |
|
to Chelm |
31.9 EUR |
39.9 EUR | 71.4 EUR |
|
to Lublin |
34.4 EUR |
42.4 EUR | 75.1 EUR |
| to Warsaw |
43.3 EUR | 51.3 EUR | 89.1 EUR |
|
Train IC+ №705/706 Kyiv-Przemysl (route via Korosten) |
Ticket Fare to Przemysl (2nd class, incl. seat reservation) |
Ticket Fare to Przemysl (1st class, incl. seat reservation) |
|
from Lviv |
5.1 EUR |
7.4 EUR |
|
from Kyiv |
13.6 EUR |
19.7 EUR |
|
Train IC+ №715/716 Kyiv-Przemysl (route via Vinnytsia & Ternopil) |
Ticket Fare to Przemysl (2nd class, incl. seat reservation) |
Ticket Fare to Przemysl (1st class, incl. seat reservation) |
|
from Lviv |
5.1 EUR |
7.4 EUR |
|
from Ternopil |
7.8 EUR |
11.3 EUR |
| from Khmelnytsky | 9.7 EUR | 14 EUR |
| from Vinnytsia | 11.3 EUR | 16.5 EUR |
| from Kyiv | 15.3 EUR | 21.5 EUR |
|
Train №751/752 Zdolbuniv-Chelm (route via Rivne & Kovel) |
Ticket Fare to Chelm (2nd class, incl. seat reservation) |
|
from Kovel |
5.8 EUR |
|
from Kivertsi (outskirt of Lutsk) |
7 EUR |
| from Rivne | 10.4 EUR |
- Ukraine-Romania: 40% discount on Ukrainian & 50% discount on Romanian leg for both one way & return tickets
- Ukraine-Bulgaria: 40% discount on Ukrainian, 45% off Romanian & 40% off Bulgarian (one way ticket) or 50% off on Bulgarian & Ukrainian legs (if return route is the same (NB: info needs to be checked/updated!)
- Ukraine-Serbia: 40% discount on Ukrainian, 45% off Romanian & 50% off Serbian (one way ticket) or 50% off on Ukrainian & 60% off on Serbian legs (if return route is the same (NB: info needs to be checked/updated)
-
b) Special offers (SparSchiene)
Ukraine-Czech Republic (via Slovakia) with direct through carriage Kyiv - (Lviv) - Praha: 46 EUR Lviv - Praha and 60 EUR Kyiv - Praha in 2nd class (both incl. 2/3 bed reservation). 1st class tickets aren't available under this offer.
c) CityStars
Ukraine-Slovakia (NB: group of passengers should consist of at least 1 adult + 1 child), Ukraine-Serbia/Montengro (via Romania, Bulgaria), Ukraine-Bulgaria (via Romania).
For passengers planning rail journeys from Ukraine to Russia or Belarus it might be good to know one small trick which can save quite a lot of money. Ticket fares on journeys between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are calculated with help of 'interstate' (MGPT) tariff that has Swiss Francs as tariff currency, while Ukranian domestic ticket fare is calculated in Ukrainian hryvnia and is way cheaper compared to Swiss Francs based 'interstate' to Russia or Belarus. Thus the 'trick' consists of minimizing leg for which passengers pays using interstate tariff, while maximizing the one for which UZ domestic tariff is applied.
To give some examples how such 'trick' actually works: for instance Lviv to Moscow 'kupe' ticket (train #74) costs at the moment roughly 3250 UAH (-->huge sum for the train ticket in this part of Europe), but how can we bring down our expenses for the journey? Very simply, first purchase domestic UZ ticket for the same Lviv-Moscow train till the last Ukrainian station before Russian border (in this case it will be Khytir-Mykhailivsky) for 230 UAH, while as next step just buy second ticket (now it will be already 'interstate') from Khytir-Mykhailivsky to Moscow (1820 UAH) for the same train #74 with which you'll arrive from Lviv. It won't be difficult to purchase second ticket even for the same carriage & berth as your first Lviv to Khytir-Mykhailivsky ticket. What we doing here is minimizing interstate ticket leg and maximizing domestic Ukrainian ticket leg, such operation gives us a difference (3250 UAH for direct ticket Lviv-Moscow or 230+1820 UAH for the combination Lviv to Khytir-Mykhailivsky & Khytir-Mykhailivsky to Moscow) of roughly 1200 UAH of saved money. Same 'trick' works with all other connections UZ-RZD/BC where Ukrainian leg is lengthy enough to "break" the ticket (e.g. from Odesa to Minsk with train #94 (direct 'kupe' ticket is 2380 UAH) vs. same train #94 but two tickets - Odesa to Chernigiv (470 UAH) & Chernigiv to Minsk (1060 UAH))
How to Buy Train Tickets in Ukraine:
National (domestic) & 'interstate' (to Russia, Belarus, Moldova etc.) tickets can be purchased via UZ website - www.booking.uz.gov.ua
Step by Step Guide on How to Purchase Tickets via UZ Online Ticket Shop - europetrainsguide.com/Advice/How-to-Buy-Train-Tickets/Ukraine-UZ.html
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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