Train Schedule

[Admin]

In case you guys didn't know about it, the German train company, Deutsche Bahn, has an English website where you can find up-to-date train schedules for travel throughout, and within, the FSU.

Often no pricing is available, but it still helps to have a reliable schedule of train options.

Here is the website:
http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

- Dan

[Stirlitz]

Check this too:

http://www.poezda.net/en/index

[Oatmeal]

Hey thanks for the sites.

Personally, I adore travelling by train.  I don't know why.  Hell, I'll intentionally fly into another city just to be able to take a train into my destination (as long as it doesn't eat too much time out of my schedule.)  But in most cases I just take the overnight train.

[Stirlitz]

I hate trains. They are so slow, uncomfortable and ill-scheduled! Take my 'favorite' Simferopol-Odessa train as an example: leaves Simferopol as early as at 5 p.m. to arrive in Odessa at 6 a.m. 13 hours to cover 500 km! It takes me half this time to drive by car, and the road is not always a highway at that! And the overnight trains which seem to be a good idea at a first glance, are hell. You cannot sleep at all.

They used to be cheap and that is why I sometimes had to use them (cursing everything) as gas is very expensive.

However, as of June, tickets cost more in Ukraine and it simply does not make sense for me.

[Phil dAmore]

Train service in Ukraine is not good?  That has to be a management issue..

No matter what else one cares to say about how things work (or more often, don't work) in Russia, there is one shining example of efficiency and that is the train service.

I personally feel that if everything in Russia worked even half as well as the trains Russia could easily cast off it's reputation as a third-world country w/r/t services.  If it all worked as well as the trains Russia could probably rule the world. 

Yeah, it's that good. And I'm not just saying this because Nina works for the railroad!

[Ste]

I did the Trans-Siberian, well, two and a half days of it.

It was great for the first 30 mins out of Moscow, then it was boring, boring, boring! It only does 40mph max and snakes about like nobodies business. Plus for some reason I had this morbid fear of being left on the platform when it stopped, so I never got out. Just as I'd wound myself up enough to get out at Samara for a walk and maybe buy a distusting salted fish from one of the old dears, it set off! No whistle or warning. Fear justified!

The best thing though is being the object of attention from the trolley dollies, the head one came along to speak to me despite knowing no English and my russian being largely crap. I shared a First Class with a guy heading for Miass, he thought I was French so I stopped talking to him. Plus he put the telly on all night on the last night cos his stop was at 03:15 so he didn't want to sleep. I wasn't too bothered cos I was feeling the nerves rising at this point, for I was to meet Nadia for the first time at 07:35 that morning. Train arrived at 07:35 too!

Funny really - I've just been flashed back, I recall how with a combinaton of extreme cold, inappropriate trousers, biting nerves, a huge bag and holdall and meeting my beloved and seeing her for the first time in the flesh, my legs failed to work properly. Like the proverbial Jelly (Jello?). I can remeber concentrating like mad on walking properly, willing my legs not to buckle. As there is not a flat surface at all at Chelyabinsk Railway Station Car Park it wasn't easy. Made it though! I remember too how difficult it was to equate this girl with the one I'd email, phoned and messaged with for several months. There was no problem, but it emphasises that huge difference in correpsonding with actually meeting....

Ste

[smartcat]

Well, for those who travel in Ukraine this site might be useful too - http://uz.gov.ua
Unfortunately it does not have any English version but your contacts from Ukraine can help you. It has prices of the train tickets at different distances in Ukraine. all depends upon  a train number and a ticket.
For those who hates trains I still can recommend 2 nice express trains, new brand in Ukraine I used many times for last 3 years. Kiev-Dnepropetrovsk and Kiev-Kharkov express daytime trains. Take the second class! It's cheaper than first. The difference is that second class looks as a plane inside - seats + flat TV screens + tea and coffee served. Conditioned. The first class has compartments per 3 or 6, but less space and air and is expensier.
Last week Kiev-Dnepropetrovsk express train costed US $16 second class and it's really fast, covering the distance even some faster than some cars or bus. Very clean train is.
For those who travel Kiev-Moscow, the good alternation is express train Kiev-Moscow #1 and #2, also very fast, modern. Sleeping cars are in, very clean and fresh decorated.  First class is around $US 85,takes overnight, stops on border customs only.  You can even see from your compartment is a toilet busy or free - there are indicators. there's a button to call for a conductor. Plus they can serve you food from wagon-restaraunt at your request.
In my life I used to travel with any class  of Ukrainian trains, even 3 rd and 4 th, which is hard to you, guys, to imagine... even by locomotives, backsacking in student years.
So, due to my 22 years experience of travelling by my own - mostly trains - I still recommend the trains I mentioned above.

[Stirlitz]

For those who hates trains I still can recommend 2 nice express trains, new brand in Ukraine I used many times for last 3 years. Kiev-Dnepropetrovsk and Kiev-Kharkov express daytime trains.

Thank you, but… If only I ever need to travel from Kiev to Dnepropetrovsk!

P.S. Did you parents allow you to travel on your own as soon as you learned to walk?!

[smartcat]

To Stitlitz. Well, not the time I just started to walk but my parents tried to teach me how to handle on my own pretty early. To send telegrams and money transfers at my 12 years old. The same year they let me make the first 400 km trip alone to grandma, countryside. I needed to change the train stations in Kharkov and to get an electric train then. I knew the route very well. Maybe sounds crazy, I know, but all the teens are different.
However in my 15 I knew how to agree with a long distance bus driver, if all the tickets were sold out... in 17 once came to the Major Train Station Officer, when I had urgent need to go for Kiev and there were no train tickets... they always got extra seats and made pocket money, well, you know, it's Ukraine. 
Of course, today much has been changed and it's good to see more comfort, more opportunities for travellers. The trains I referred above stay on top of comfort/price rate, IMHO.