Train ticket prices for the trans-siberian railway

When I was planning and researching the trans-siberian railway trip I found it difficult to find out how much the tickets would cost. There was a big variation in prices mentioned in guidebooks, versus those I read about on the internet versus what tour companies were offering. There are many reasons for these variations such as the train type, the compartment type, the time of year and so on.

As I was I traveling in the low season I decided I would buy my tickets at the stations as I traveled. As expected this turned out to be considerably cheaper than buying them via a travel agency. I kept note of how much I paid for each of my tickets and have published the prices below. I booked Ulaan Baator to Beijing via the hostel and paid them a commission of $14 for the ticket. The rest of the tickets I booked at the train station. I do not speak Russian and generally the train station staff do not speak English but with the help of a guidebook and some friendly hostel staff I wrote very specific details of the ticket that I wanted in Russian.

St Petersburg - Moscow (3rd Class Carriage) 720rb (€16)

Moscow - Irkutsk (2nd Class) 11,200rb (€255)

Irkutsk - Ulaan Baator (2nd Class) 4,070rb (€93)

*Ulaan Baator - Beijing (2nd Class) $110 (€77)

*I booked this ticket through the hostel and as a result paid them a commission of $14.

Buying a Russian train ticket when no one speaks English and you don't speak Russian

Originally my intention was to travel by 2nd class train but after talking to other people in the hostel I decided to buy a third class ticket for the overnight trip from St Petersburg to Moscow. I went to the station and bought the ticket myself which is quite difficult to do in Russia as none of the staff at the ticket counters speak English and they are not exactly friendly or helpful.


With the help of a guide book and the hostel staff I was able to write in Russian the type of ticket that I wanted. I went to the station, queued, said in russian that I didn't understand Russian and handed in the page. It all worked fine, she wrote down the amount so I knew how much it and once I agreed and I gave my passport and that was it.

Ordering a Russian train ticket

The guidebook explained how to read a Russian train ticket so I was able to confirm that everything was correct with the ticket. Take a look at the ticket below and you'll see why you needed a guide to read the ticket.

My Russian train ticket

St Petersburg

St Petersburg was a bit of a struggle especially when trying to buy food as most people did not speak english and everything was in cyrillic and they don't take credit card. I tried my bank card in 3 different banks but it wouldn't work in any of them. Some guys at the hostel told me about a HSBC bank so I went there and my card worked BUT I made a stupid mistake. The ATM asked "Russian or English" and I choose English and then "Roubles or Euro" and I choose Euro thinking I could specify the amount in euro but it would give me the equivalent in Roubles but it gave me 3 fifty euro notes :)


I'm not sure what the point of this was but it was about -15 and this guy was getting his portrait done at the side of the street.

Crazy guy getting a portrait in St Petersburg

Riga to St Petersburg

My original plan was to take a train from Riga to St Petersburg but various people that I spoke to in the hostel recommended that I took a Eurolines bus instead as it was much cheaper and more comfortable. I paid a little extra so I'd have a more comfortable seat and a table so I could make use of the wifi on the bus.

The journey to Tallinn was comfortable but after that it got a little messy. I had to wait for one hour at 12am in the bus station for a connecting bus. I couldn't use the bathroom facilities as I didn't have any currency for Estonia and they would not accept Lat or Rubles. The bus from Tallinn to St Petersburg was not a eurolines bus, it was some type of old Russian bus and was not very comfortable.


I had to hand over my passport when leaving Latvia and again when leaving Estonia and then at 4am we got to the Russian border. I was the only person who spoke English on the bus so it was difficult to find out what was going on. At 4am everyone got off the bus and took all their luggage with them. It was pretty cold out, snowing and very dark. There were lots of guys with military uniforms and weapons walking around. It was a bit unnerving going through customs and passport control when they did not speak English and I did not speak Russian. There was some problem with my documentation but I didn't know what or why and she couldn't explain, eventually she was happy and let me through. So back on the bus and in about 4 hours we got to St Petersburg.


It was a bit of a shock when I got off the bus in St Petersburg, firstly it was very very cold, I had no idea where I was when I got off the bus, no one spoke english and there were no signs in english. I found the metro pretty quickly but I couldn't buy a ticket.  They would not take any large notes. I found a shop, bought some chewing gum and got some change. The lady in the shop wasn't happy but she gave me change anyhow.


It was rush hour so it was very busy and I had a rucksack and a hand luggage bag also. It took me over an hour to find the hostel even though it was less than a 5 minute walk from the metro station.  The metro stations are impressive and are very far under ground.

Escalator to the underground

Impressive underground corridors

They do not have any sign for the hostel except for a small sticker on the apartment door and anyone that I asked either could not speak english or else they did not know where the hostel was.


I finally found it by asking in a clothes shop. The girl who worked there put on her jacket and walked out with me to show me the street that it was on. She didn't know the hostel but said that was the street that I was looking for. This was the same street that I'd found myself about a half hour ago. Luckily one of the hostel staff was on her way to the hostel and spotted me and showed me the entrance. Speaking to the other guests in the hostel I realised I wasn't the only person who had trouble finding it.

Moscow

I left St Petersburg at 1am and got to Moscow at 9am. Third class was fine for a short journey but it is a bit cramped. There is no privacy either as the carriage does not have any compartments, just bunks everywhere. I couldn't take a photo as I was late getting there so the carriage was fully by the time I arrived. No one around me spoke English and as it was 1am most people were just went to sleep. 


Once I arrived in Moscow I went to the Metro station. This time around I made sure I knew what metro stop I needed to get to and also had directions to get to the hostel. Once again it was rush hour when I arrived. I had to change metros and accidently took the wrong escalator which meant I was forced to leave the metro station. It was all one-way so I couldn't go back down and had to by another ticket.

The Metro in Moscow

At the hostel I met Martin from Sweden who I was leaving St Petersburg the day that I arrived there. I walked with him to red square where I had arranged to meet Kseniya, a Russian student that I met at the hostel in St Petersburg. Moscow was much colder than St Petersburg and soon after arriving at red square it started snowing and continued to do so for the rest of the day.

Snow in Moscow

I had heard that Moscow was very expensive and it is always ranked as one of the most expensive cities in the world. A coffee in a one of the Russian coffee shops costs at least €5 and a coffee in Starbucks or similar is even more expensive.


Moscow can be difficult enough to get around especially as signs and street names are in cyrillic. Even the locals get lost...

We're lost...