Life on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Stuart Marshall

It crosses the whole continent, starts in Moscow, passes through the European Russia, crosses Urals mountains (which separate Europe and Asia), continues into Siberia's taiga and steppes, and finishes in Vladivostok — the Russian Far East coast on the Pacific Ocean. 
Travellers researching a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway online are likely to come across dozens of agencies offering all inclusive tours. These promise to arrange visas as well as luxury train tickets on this famous route.

The price for such packages can run into thousands of pounds and while it may be tempting to have the arrangements taken care of for you, with just a little effort and a sense of adventure you might save yourself a fortune.

The Trans-Siberian railway is a local train route after all, albeit a very long one, and as such tickets can be bought in person for any section of your journey even on the day of travel. As a comparison, in 2005 a ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok cost about £150 – about the same price as a standard return ticket from London to Glasgow!

There are three main routes. The Trans-Siberian route proper runs across Russia from Moscow and terminates in Vladivostok, a port on the Sea of Japan. This is the longest route covering some 9,288 kilometres (a third of the way around the globe), making it one of the longest train rides in the world.

At Ulan Ude the track splits into the Trans-Manchurian line and again at Chita into the Trans-Mongolian both of which terminate in Beijing but travel through China and Mongolia respectively.

A pre-booked tour is likely to put you in first class accomodation on the train (the two-berth spalny vagon) to justify their price although it's hardly expensive. This could also mean you'll be traveling with tourists like yourself making it harder to interact with ordinary Russians. For this the second class four-berth kupe is great fun. Third class consists of bunks in a kind of dormitory arrangement and isn’t available on all trains. First and second class also have locking doors for peace of mind.

Although it’s true that little English is spoken outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, buying train tickets need not be intimidating. A good guidebook such as Bryn Thomas’ Trans-Siberian Handbook will provide a template in Cyrillic which you can copy out and amend to hold up at the kiosk window.

Obtaining a Russian visa can be a lengthy process so give yourself plenty of time before you travel and bear in mind that once inside Russia you are required to get hotel stamps for every night you spend there.

On the subject of visas, if you’re also travelling to Russia by train via Poland and Belarus – a popular route from London via Brussels – you’ll need a transit visa for the latter but not for Poland which is part of the EU. An excellent resource for planning these and other train journeys worldwide is the much lauded site the man in seat sixty-one.

Outside of first class and organised tours be prepared to share picnics with ordinary Russians and drink vodka with soldiers – Russian hospitality is irresistible.