Russian Train Tickets Booking
There are 3 ways for Russian Train Tickets Booking:
1. Book with a reputable travel agency – Hassle free.
2. Buy tickets on the official website of Russian Railway Corporation – compulsory registration & probably payment problems.
3. Buy tickets at railway stations in Russia - language barrier & unsure ticket availability.
There is an uncertainty on Russian ticket price. Normally if you buy tickets at last minute or the tickets have already released for a long time, the ticket price will be higher than before. And the price will also be higher on peak time, such as the trains at the early morning during working days or the late trains on the last day of Holiday. Therefore, travelers are suggested to book tickets at the earliest time to save cost. The final price will be confirmed at ticketing.
Details of 3 ways of Russian Train Tickets Booking
1. Book with a reputable travel agency – Hassle free
It is a good choice for travelers to book tickets with an online travel agency, especially for those who only can speak a little English or cannot complete the payment on Russian railway official website. A reputable travel agency can provide much convenience on these aspects:• Safe payment environment with many payment methods (PayPal, Western Union, Cable Transfer, Credit Card, Ali-pay and WeChat)
• No hidden charge, only service fee charged, which is worth if you need to plan a long complicated journey in Russia and need assistance to smooth everything.
• Personal English-speaking consultant is always available for you.
• Select seats and reschedule your trips freely.
• Easy booking and payment system.
• Instant confirmation: normally after you finish payment, the travel agency will confirm your tickets soon and send you an e-ticket (in Russian and English) by email, which needs to be shown when boarding the train. The E-ticket can be shown on your smartphones or on a print-out.
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2. Buy tickets on the official website – compulsory registration & probably payment problems
https://eng.rzd.ru/ is the official website of Russian Railway Authority. Tickets can be booked on this website 45 days before the travelling date and this page can be shown in two languages - Russian and English. But there are several problems you need to mention below:
• A personal account must be created beforehand. The most important step during registration is to enter the verification link in your own email box, but not all email boxes can receive this link successfully sent by Russian Railways according to some travelers’ experience.
• It is compulsory for you to choose cabin and seat numbers online, which easily make you confused while facing a variety of choices.• The precision of travelers’ information is required. Name and passport numbers which input in booking form must be 100% same as what they shown on your passport, even a little mistake will cause the failure of boarding the train. Sometimes the customer service may not response you in time when you are in trouble.
• The website only approves 3D verification payments by Visa card and Master card.
3. Russian Train Tickets Booking at Railway Stations - Language Barrier & Unsure Ticket Availability
Some travelers choose to buy tickets at railway station directly to save service fee charged by travel agencies, but they need to take the risk of waiting until they reach the train stations. At that time all tickets for hot routes or on some approaching dates may be sold out. What’s more, you need to speak a little Russian, as most of train staffs in Russia cannot speak English.Buying Trans-Siberian Tickets
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the most popular part in Russian railway system, tickets involved in this railway could only be booked either at railway stations or through travel agencies. If you are flexible in departure date, travelling time and seat class, it is possible for you to find suitable tickets at railway station, at least for trips within Russia.
However for hot routes or long routes on peak season, like the trips of Moscow – Mongolia and Moscow – Beijing, it is difficult for people to buy the tickets at the train station. The fact is that travel agencies can purchase all of these tickets at the earliest releasing time and resell them to travelers. Although the train staff may tell you the tickets are sold out, actually you still can buy them from a travel agency. Therefore people better book these tickets in advance through a travel agency.