Recently I came across the fact that some of my friends do not know how to buy Russian Railways train tickets online via the Internet. Although, in my opinion, it is quite simple and convenient, since there is no need to go to the station and stand in lines at the ticket office. Nevertheless, I will try to describe this method and what is needed for it..
First of all, for any purchases via the Internet, you need a debit or credit plastic card Visa or Mastercard or the like. Such cards are now widespread everywhere (for example, salary cards), and for those who do not have, I advise you to buy a really useful thing and not only for the Internet. For information: Which bank card to choose.
The content of the article
- one How to buy Russian Railways train tickets online - instructions
- 2 Types of e-tickets of Russian Railways
- 3 Layout of seats in the carriage
- 4 To help those who buy a Russian Railways ticket online
- five How to buy the bottom two seats
- 6 Where else to buy tickets for Russian Railways
- 7 How to return a Russian Railways ticket
How to buy Russian Railways train tickets online - instructions
registration on the website
First you need to register at pass.rzd.ru. This is the official website of the Russian railways, where you can view train timetables and buy railway tickets..
You can use other services, for example, one of the most popular Tutu.ru. Its plus is that there is technical support and it does not work as buggy as the Russian Railways website. However, you will have to pay a small commission for comfort..
After registration, log in with your username and password and select the menu item: Buy a ticket -> Purchase a ticket (available only to authorized users).
Search for a train by schedule
Enter the city of departure, arrival, and date of departure. You will receive a list of trains traveling in this direction and the availability of seats in them (L - luxury, K - compartment, P - reserved seat). Choose the right train.
List of available trains and availability
Viewing the price, choosing the type of carriage and car number
On the next page, you will see the availability of seats in all available train carriages, sorted by carriage type (compartment, reserved seat), as well as the ticket price. Select the required carriage.
Availability and cost
Seat selection in the carriage
This is where the convenience ends, because Russian Railways did not provide the choice of a specific seat to its passengers. But it provides an opportunity to choose seats in the carriage according to several criteria:
- Top / bottom seats
- In one compartment / In the compartment of a carriage / In one compartment of a reserved seat car
- Seat boundaries (specify the range of seat numbers from and to)
By choosing the conditions, you can find suitable places for yourself. If there are no such seats at the moment (the system will tell you about this), then you can change the carriage by returning to the schedule or try to search with other criteria.
Choosing a seat according to the specified criteria and filling out passport data
Entering your passport data
Just enter your passport details and your travel companions. Remember, you only have 10 minutes to fill in the data. Because at this moment the train ticket is booked by the system and it cannot hold it for a long time.
Payment for a ticket with a plastic card
To make purchases, you will need the card number and name of the cardholder on the front and a 3 or 4 digit CVV / CVC code on the back of the card. You also need to know if confirmation of payment is required from your bank. Confirmation means that after entering your card details, the system may require you to enter a password, which you must either receive from the bank or from an ATM, or it will come to you in the form of an SMS. In fact, there is nothing difficult here, just do this procedure once and you will understand everything..
So, to pay for a ticket, enter your payment card details. The payment plan is standard, everything is done as usual, and as on other sites. If you have no experience with bank cards, then read my articles - How to use a bank card and Which bank card to choose.
Types of e-tickets of Russian Railways
After payment, tickets can be of two types - an electronic ticket (by default) and electronic registration. The system itself will tell you what type is available for a given train..
E-ticket
Electronic ticket - means that you need to print out the ticket form, which will be issued by the system, or simply write down its unique number, and then get a ticket at the railway ticket office, or in the ticket issuing device at the railway station (it looks like an ATM).
Electronic registration
Electronic registration means that you only need to show your passport to the conductor when entering your train car. But just in case, it's best to take a printout with you. This type of ticket has appeared recently, and is available only on some routes. Indicated by the ER icon.
Layout of seats in the carriage
In order to make it easier to navigate and look for the right place in the carriage, here is a diagram of the seats in the carriage. Odd - bottom, even - top. Images are clickable.
Scheme of seats in a reserved seat carriage
Seats in a compartment carriage diagram
To help those who buy a Russian Railways ticket online
Some points from personal experience, as well as the necessary info.
- Russian Railways has a buggy website, that's okay, relax.
- Tickets are available for dates no earlier than 60 days.
- You cannot buy more than 4 tickets at a time.
- You cannot buy the two bottom seats at once.
- It is possible to buy tickets immediately there and back (10% discount).
- After seat selection, tickets are booked for 10 minutes. This time is given for payment - input of payment data and confirmation from the bank, if required. During this time, your seats will be inaccessible to other people..
- The system does not report which seats are free and which are not, you can only use the provided selection criteria. You will find out the number of seats immediately before entering your payment information, when the seats have already been booked. If you are not satisfied with these places, please make your reservation again.
- To calculate the free seats in the carriage, you can rebook different options one by one by setting the selection criteria.
How to buy the bottom two seats
The Russian Railways website does not offer such a possibility. But there are two options:
- Make two purchases in a row.
That is, first buy one train ticket, then the second. True, since there will be two printouts from the site, the tickets will also need to be received by two people, since each printout is in its own name. Also, the inconvenience is that while you are performing these operations, someone at the same time with you will buy the place you need.. - Book an unnecessary ticket, and then search for the boundaries of seats
Let's say we need 1 and 3 places (both bottom). We go into the system, we begin to book a place at number 2 (top). When the system prompts you to enter your payment information, this means that the ticket is booked for 10 minutes, which means it is not available to other people. We return to the beginning, carry out a search, and now in the criteria we set the boundaries of places from 1 to 3. We get the two bottom places. Take into account only 10 minutes for the operation.
Where else to buy tickets for Russian Railways
In order not to suffer with a buggy and inconvenient official website, use the booking form from the well-known service TuTu. We ourselves often use their services, sane people work there, which is good news. By the way, there you can buy two lower seats at once, just mark them on the carriage diagram and that's it..
How to return a Russian Railways ticket
In order not to repeat myself, I will just give a link to an article I wrote on this issue - How to return an electronic ticket to Russian Railways.
P.S In the CIS countries, it will not work to receive an electronic ticket at the terminal or at the box office, only in Russia. Therefore, if, for example, you are traveling from Russia to Ukraine and back, then it is best to get both tickets in Russia at once, otherwise you will have to buy a return ticket again.
