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.

Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

I was not expecting so many Christmas decorations and Christmas lights in Moscow. Here are some pictures of St Basils Cathedral and Red Square in Moscow.

St Basil's Cathedral

Red Square

Ice Rink on Red Square

Red Square with St Basil's Cathedral in the background.

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

Moscow to Irkutsk

We were the only tourists on the 4 day train journey from Moscow to Irkutsk, not only that but we soon discovered that we were the only English speaking passengers on the train also. Our train was one of the more modern ones so our compartment was quite comfortable.

2nd class compartment

The restaurant carriage on the train was bad, so bad that we never ate there. But we were expecting this so we were prepared with noodles, bread, soup, biscuits and coke. Every carriage has a samovar so you have constant access to hot water.

Samovar on our carriage

About 1 hour into the train journey we noticed ice was starting to form on the carriage window. Our compartment was warm but the window itself was freezing. It meant if we wanted to keep something cool we could leave it by the window, it was like having our own mini fridge.

Ice forming on the inside of the window

At the end of the carriage where the entrance door was it was pretty cold, you could even say it was freezing....

Its cold!

We had a leaflet with the names of the stations that the train would stop at, the times and the duration for each stop. All times for Russian railways are in Moscow time even when local time will be different as you are crossing between time zones. Before the train arrives at the station the carriage attendant, known as a provodnitsa (female) or provodnik (male), locks the toilets. Once the train stops the carriage attendant then knocks the ice from under the carriage.

Ice under the carriage

The provodnitsa on our carriage did not speak English and was no particularly friendly. Any contact we had with her mainly consisted of her shouting at us in Russian and us saying that we didn't understand. We avoided her as best we could for the duration of the journey but this one not always possible. At one point I went to the samovar to get some hot water for some noodles and she came running our of her compartment and shouted at me. She took me noodles, made a gesture that indicated that I should stay where I was, she arrived back 2 minutes later with my noodles full of boiling water. We soon realised that her shouting was not necessarily a bad thing that just seemed to be how she spoke.

Noodles, noodles and more noodles.

Whenever there was a stop for 15 minutes or more we got off to get some fresh air or in Martin's case to have a cigarette. We normally only stayed outside of 2 or 3 minutes as it was always freezing and most of the long stops were in the middle of the night so it was always around -20 or worse. Here is a photo from one of the early morning stops.

Early morning stop

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...