One of the best ways to see Russia and connect with locals is to take a train journey. With nearly 85,300km of track, there’s a fair chance that Russian Railways (RZD or РЖД) will have a service to suit your travel plans.
The Big Red Train Ride (Eric Newby)
Through Siberia by Accident and Silverland (Dervla Murphy)
Trans-Siberian Railway (Anne and Olaf Meinhardt)
The Trans-Siberian Railway: A Traveller’s Anthology (ed Deborah Manley)
To the Edge of the World: The Story of the Trans-Siberian Railway (Christian Wolmar)
Journey into the Mind’s Eye (Lesley Blanch)
RZD (Russian Railways; http://pass.rzd.ru) For bookings on the national rail network.
Man in Seat 61 (www.seat61.com) Up-to-date info and links.
Trans-Siberian Railway Web Encyclopedia (www.transsib.ru) Not updated, but still a mine of useful background info.
Trans-Siberian Railway Encyclopedia (https://trans-siberian-railway-encyclopedia.com) Download a copy of Robert Walker's ebook all about the various trans-Sib routes.
You can buy train tickets at stations and online – via RZD (https://pass.rzd.ru) or a host of other online travel agencies – up to 60 days in advance of your planned date of travel. Those selling tickets as agents for RZD will add their own charges to the basic fares. Note when booking that every train in Russia has two numbers: one for the eastbound service (even numbers) and one for the westbound (odd numbers).
RZD's fares vary by the class of carriage and/or berth or seat, season and demand for travel – expect to pay anything up to 20% more at peak travel times (eg early July to early August and around key holidays such as Easter and New Year). The inverse happens at slack times of the year, such as early January to March, when there are discounts on fares.
Children under five travel free if they share a berth/seat with an adult; otherwise, children under 10 pay a reduced fare for their own berth/seat.
Discounts are often available for online bookings and if you're prepared to take the upper bunks in kupe (2nd-class) carriages. It’s also possible to have two grades of kupe fare, with or without meals.
The five classes of ticket are:
AМягкие (myagky; soft) 1st-class compartment sleeping two with its own toilet and shower; only available on certain firmeny (premium-class) services.
AСВ (SV, standing for spalny vagon) Also 1st-class compartment sleeping two, but with shared toilets for the carriage.
AКупе (kupe) 2nd-class compartment sleeping four, with shared toilets for the carriage.
AПлацкарт (platskart) Dorm carriage with 54 berths; in the process of being phased out to replaced by double-decker carriages with private compartments.
AОбщий (obshchiy) General or seating class, usually only for day trains.
Extending 9289km from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific, and taking around six full days, the Trans-Siberian Railway is among the most famous of the world’s great train journeys. Rolling out of Europe and into Asia, over vast swathes of taiga, steppe and desert, the Trans-Siberian – the world’s longest single-service railway – makes all other train rides seem like once around the block with Thomas the Tank Engine.
Don’t look for the Trans-Siberian Railway on a timetable, though. The term is used generically for three main lines and the numerous trains that run on them. For the first four days of travel out of Moscow’s Yaroslavsky vokzal (station), the trans-Siberian, trans-Manchurian and trans-Mongolian routes all follow the same line, passing through Nizhny Novgorod on the way to Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains and then into Siberia.
Many travellers choose to break their journey at Irkutsk to visit Lake Baikal (we recommend you do), but otherwise, the three main services continue on round the southern tip of the lake to Ulan-Ude, another possible jumping-off point for Baikal. From here, trans-Siberian trains continue to Vladivostok, while the trans-Mongolian ones head south for the Mongolian border, Ulaanbaatar and Beijing. The trans-Manchurian service continues past Ulan-Ude to Chita, then turns southeast for Zabaikalsk on the Chinese border.
For full details about the journey, read Lonely Planet’s Trans-Siberian Railway guide.
The 1/2 Rossiya train is the premier Moscow–Vladivostok service, but tickets on it are more expensive than other services; if you're stopping off along the route, it will be cheaper to use other trains. For comparison, a kupe berth for the whole journey on the 99/100 train, which also links Moscow and Vladivostok (via Yaroslavl), costs around R21,000 compared to R37,400 on the Rossiya.
If you’d prefer to skip Moscow in favour of St Petersburg as the start or finish of a trans-Siberian journey, the 71/72 Demidovsky Express between St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg is a recommended option.
And if you’d like to speed things up a little, there are also the high-speed Strizh trains connecting Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod in around three hours and 30 minutes.
The more popular of the two options running directly between Moscow and Beijing is the weekly 3/4 trans-Mongolian service, a Chinese train that travels via Ulaanbaatar and is the only one to offer deluxe carriages with showers.
If you’re planning to stop off in Irkutsk, there’s also the less fancy 361/362 service to/from Naushki, with through-carriages to/from Ulaanbaatar.
The weekly 19/20 Vostok trans-Manchurian service is a Russian train that crosses the border into China at Zabaikalsk, and passes through Harbin before terminating in Beijing seven days after its initial departure from Moscow.
The alternative trans-Sib route is the Baikal-Amur Mainline (Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral; BAM). It begins at Tayshet, 4515km east of Moscow, curls around the top of Lake Baikal, cuts through nonstop taiga, winds around snow-splattered mountains and burrows through endless tunnels on its way east to Sovetskaya Gavan on the Tatar Strait.
The BAM's prime attraction is the incredibly remote and utterly wild scenery viewed from the train window. As well as Lake Baikal’s lovely northern lip, adventures on the BAM reach some very out-of-the-way places including Bratsk, Tynda and Komsomolsk-na-Amure.
There is no Russian rail pass. Hence, if you are travelling from, say, Moscow to Vladivostok, and plan on spending a night or two in Nizhny Novgorod and Irkutsk, you’ll need three separate tickets: Moscow–Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod–Irkutsk and Irkutsk–Vladivostok.
If you’re planning to frequently hop on and off trains and want to save some money along the way, it’s a good idea to avoid the premium trains and go for the regular services, which offer the cheaper platskart (3rd-class) carriages. Most of these services are perfectly acceptable and take pretty much the same travelling time, point to point, as the premium trains.
Other intriguing services that link up far-flung corners of Russia and further afield include the 225/226 Murmansk–Adler train, a 76-hour service that connects the Arctic Circle city with the sun-kissed shores of the Black Sea. The train passes through Kem (jumping-off point for the Solovetsky Islands), Petrozavodsk (for access to Kizhi), Tver, Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don and Sochi. If travelling this route in the winter months, apart from the glorious snow-blanketed wilderness (and little snowed-in villages pumping out chimney smoke), watch out for little ice-fishing ‘cities’ that pop up on wide frozen lakes and the occasional glimpse of villagers playing football on said icy expanses. Train breaks are always great for running out to buy huge smoked fish (including expensive smoked whole eels) from the babushkas on the platforms.
Even on short visits to the country it’s possible to squeeze in one overnight train journey, the most popular one being between Moscow and St Petersburg. The high-speed, TGV-standard Sapsan trains may link the two metropolises in under four hours, but they lack the glamour and romance of climbing aboard premium overnight RZD services such as the Krasnaya Strela (Red Arrow) or the private Grand Express (www.grandexpress.ru), which bills itself as a mobile hotel.
And if you really can’t get enough of long-distance trains, the RZD network is just as connected to Europe’s networks as it is to those of Asia’s, offering direct services to, among other places, Berlin, Nice, Paris and Vienna. The Man in Seat Sixty-One (www.seat61.com) has full details.
There is nothing quite like the smell of a Russian train: coal smoke, coffee, garlic, sausage, sweat, vodka and dozens of other elements combine to form an aroma that’s so distinctive it will be permanently etched in your sensual memory.
To calculate where you are while on a journey, keep an eye out for the small, black-and-white kilometre posts generally on the southern side of the track. These mark the distance to and from Moscow. In between each kilometre marker are smaller posts counting down roughly every 100m. The distances on train timetables don’t always correspond to these marker posts (usually because the timetable distances are the ones used to calculate fares).
On any long-distance Russian train journey you’ll soon learn who’s in charge: the provodnitsa. Though sometimes male (provodnik), carriage attendants are usually women.
Apart from checking your ticket before boarding the train, doling out linen, and shaking you awake in the middle of the night when your train arrives, the job of the provodnitsa is to keep her carriage spick and span (most are very diligent about this) and to make sure the samovar is always fired up with hot water. They will have cups, plates and cutlery to borrow, if you need them, and can provide drinks and snacks for a small price.
On long journeys, the provodnitsa works in a team of two; one will be working while the other is resting.
Initially, a provodnitsa can come across as quite fearsome. Very few will speak any language other than Russian. All look as smart as sergeant majors in their RZD uniforms – and just as ready to knock you into shape if you step out of line! However, if you're polite and respectful to your provodnitsa, and bestow on her plenty of friendly smiles, chances are high that she will do her best to make your journey a very pleasant one.
Russians have a knack of making themselves totally at home on trains. This often means that they’ll be travelling with plenty of luggage, causing inevitable juggling of the available space in all compartment classes.
In all but local trains there’s a luggage bin underneath each lower berth that will hold a medium-sized backpack or small suitcase. There’s also enough space beside the bin to squeeze in another medium-sized bag. Above the doorway (in 1st and 2nd classes) or over the upper bunks (in 3rd class) there’s room to accommodate a couple more rucksacks.
ASleeping compartments are mixed sex; when women indicate that they want to change clothing before going to bed or after getting up, men go out and loiter in the corridor.
AIt’s good manners to offer any food or drinks you bring to the fellow passengers in your compartment; Russians will always offer to share their food with you.
ASmoking is forbidden anywhere on the train and on the platforms.
AIf service from the provodnitsa is especially good, a tip would be a good way to show appreciation.
Located at both ends of each carriage, toilets can be locked long before and after station stops (there’s a timetable on the door). Except on a very few premium-service trains, there are no shower facilities – improvise with a sponge, flannel or short length of garden hose that you can attach to the tap for a dousing.
Every sleeping carriage has a samovar filled with boiling water that’s safe to drink and ideal for hot drinks, instant noodles or porridge.
The quality of food in dining cars varies widely. Rather than for eating, they become the place to hang out, drink beer and play cards, particularly on the long trans-Siberian trip. Note also on the trans-Mongolian and trans-Manchurian trains that the dining cars are changed at each border, so en route to Beijing you get Russian, Chinese and possibly Mongolian versions. Occasionally, between the Russian border and Ulaanbaatar there is no dining car.
A meal in a restaurant car can cost anything from R400 to R1000. If you don’t fancy what’s on offer, there’s often a table of instant noodles, savoury snacks, chocolate, alcohol, juice and the like being peddled by staff. They sometimes make the rounds of the carriages, too, with a trolley of snacks and drinks. Prices are typically a little more than you’d pay at the kiosks or to the babushkas at the station halts.
Some tickets include a meal or snack in their cost; eg on the Sapsan services between Moscow and St Petersburg you'll be provided with an airline-style snack box or a full hot meal, depending on your class of ticket.
Shopping for supplies at the stations is part of the fun of any long-distance Russian train trip. The choice of items is often excellent, with fresh milk, ice cream, grilled chicken, boiled potatoes, home cooking such as pelmeni (Russian-style ravioli dumplings) or pirozhki (savoury pies), buckets of forest berries and smoked fish all on offer.