Talk:Trans-Siberian Railway

Transsiberia ticket from Riga

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone now, but last summer I checked for tickets in Riga, Latvia for Mongolia (Ulanbataar) and it seems that you can actually get a ticket fro transsib in Riga and start from Riga as well. The price they gave me for a onway trip from Riga to Ulanbataar was around 140$ - This seems to be cheaper than the prices avilable online...hope this helps anyone

Could you please elaborate further on this? Did you go to a travel agency or just a train station? Also do you have contact information? Thanks. (WT-en) Sapphire 16:45, 9 April 2006 (EDT)

Sure, I can:) No, I didn't go to an agency. To my knowledge there are no agencies in Riga selling these tickets - you can get them at the train station. You go to the station and find the international tickets desk ("Starptautiskā biļešu kase" in latvian) or something like that, tell them where you want to go and they'll probably spend like a half an hour calculating your itenerary station by station (I don't know why they have to do that, but it was like that when we went to ask about going to Mongolia). And you can buy the ticket's there in advance - we asked in april for a ticket in august, if I remember correctly, so they can place all the reservations just fine.

What kind of contact details did you mean? If you need to know more about the train statin or routes from Riga try this: http://www.ldz.lv/en/sarakstsi.htm (some parts of the english site are missing, but anyway)

Also, there is a thing, that from April 2006 a new train route from Liepāja (westernmost coast city of Latvia) to Riga has been opened - this gives eager travellers the option to start from the westernmost part the old USSR railway system - go all the way from the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok or the other destinations on transsiberian if they want to.

I know that the railways in Blatics are not and have never been a part of the transsib, but I've done my owns searching of the net on transsib stories, and I realise that some people actually like to start their journey from the Baltics - maybe to make the trip even longer (for taking the longest train trip in the world anyway), to see the contrasts outside their window and to buy their tickets cheaper than from internet agencies, etc. I don't know the current details about going from Lithuania, but it should be similar IMHO. Hope this helps again:) If you someone is really interested in more details, I could actually go to the desk in the station in Riga to ask them more - I'm commuting frequently though that station...

Thanks. I'll add this information in later. Don't worry about the contact details. I was wondering what a phone number would be, but if all you have to do is show up at the train station then it really doesn't matter. What's the name of the main train station in Riga? Thanks. (WT-en) Sapphire 16:03, 11 April 2006 (EDT)

The central station in Riga is just that - in official documents it's sometimes called Rīga-Pasažieru meaning Riga passenger station and you can actually try calling a number given on the Latvian railway homepage for international traffic inqueries +371 7232820, however don't expect them to speak any english by default (although it's possible that someone actually speaks some english there from time to time - international train announcements are given in english as well, as far as I've heard them...)

This link is not working. http://trainline.ru/ 14:09, 30 August 2006 (EDT)

Does anyone know approximately how much cheaper are tickets bought at a station than those purchased online?

Warsaw

I don't recognize the (8-digit) station number currently given for Warsaw in the article.

The 7-digit station numbers for Warsaw used in the Russian timetable and ticketing system are, as far as I am aware:

5100136 Warszawa Centralna

5100138 Warszawa Wschodnia

5199136 Warszawa

-- (WT-en) Picapica 07:16, 24 May 2007 (EDT)

Project:Plunge forward. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 07:18, 24 May 2007 (EDT)

City Star Ticket

On this site there is a lot of information about travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway and also about the tickets which can be used there. I think this could be an interesting source Although it is not a primary source for the Trans-Siberian Railway it is a source for "how to get cheap tickets".--88.117.72.89 10:12, 15 August 2007 (EDT)

It's against our external links policy. Please incorporate the useful information into this article. (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 10:31, 15 August 2007 (EDT)

Talk: Mention of Lonely Planet

This was recently edited out of the sleep section:

many travelers find this class to be much better than it's reputation (especially what is described in Lonely Planet).

Holla Tex, not sure I agree on your removal of the Lonely Planet phrase - it might just have been reflex - but I do think it has a place, obviously i can't quote it because of copyright issues, but it's outright wrong what they write, and a subject of much discussion at the hostels i stayed at while i was doing the trip. Personally I avoided Platzkart because of LP's description, until an Aussie dragged me into one. LP has a scary authority considering how loose their research is, and because if this I personally think it deserves a mention (every bloody traveler i met on that trip had a copy of the LP guide). (WT-en) Sertmann 18:54, 29 October 2008 (EDT)

Ideas?

Does anyone have any idea's on how to proceed expanding this guide, I'm really happy with how the station numbers section turned out after a bit of work, truly unique and very very useful, though it should probably be renamed with all the work put into it. But what else needs expansion? what new sections should be added? Just add them on the list below, and hopefully I'll get around to do some of it... --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 02:58, 7 December 2008 (EST)

• History section
• See section (short introductions to the major towns and hidden jewels a la the DOTM intros)
• Map - with destinations from the See section plotted, and very important, time zones!
• Get Out section, with pointers to stuff like my (Stefan's) Russia to Japan via Sakhalin itinerary.

I think you've done a great job with it. Your 'See' idea would be good, especially if it also highlighted anything of interest about the stations themselves. (I remember being interested by the angles of the Tyumen station and getting threatened by police for taking photos of the Novosibirsk station.) My wish list would include a list of which stations get long stops (e.g. ones where a traveler has time to get off the train and pick something up at the station) versus short stops...although I'm guessing that changes a bit between trips, so my experience might not be the same as yours. Distance between the stations would help, which I assume would be covered by your proposed map.

I lost a whole camera memory card of Trans-Siberian station photos and signs...I'm still miserable about it! (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 19:31, 13 December 2008 (EST)

VISA INFO...especially with regards to invitation. Do I have to get an invitation through a tourist agency, or can I book several nights in Moscow and then a week later a hotel in Vladivostok? (WT-en) AHeneen 01:39, 25 February 2009 (EST)

Hmmm I do think that belongs in the Russia guide, thoughts anyone --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 05:00, 25 February 2009 (EST)

I'm bewildered by the tourist visa process for Russia. When I lived there I had a multiple entry resident-student visa, so I never had to deal with any of that. Anything either of you could contribute to the Russia article regarding the intricacies of visa-related challenges in Russia travel would be very welcome. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 05:03, 25 February 2009 (EST).

I was there on a business Visa - and it was just as complicated - invitiation required, embassy website said a HIV test was required (and still does), but the travel agency that issued the invitation would have none of it, fixed entry and exit dates (can't enter before or after the dates stated on the Visa). But i suspect the situation is very different depending on where you get your visa. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 06:22, 25 February 2009 (EST)

All I can say is that it's a sort of Take That to many western nations, and especially USA. The thing is that by the old diplomatic tradition, visa relations are governed by bilateral agreements, and most important, reciprocality principle. That is, whatever visa requirements one nations has to citizens of another nation, the same stuff the latter nation will require from the former. So, if you find requirements to get a Russian visa overtly complex and bewildering, it means only that your own nation requires the same from the Russians wanting to enter your country. Couldn't say that it's a very smart thing to do (mutual removal of visa requirements between Russia and Iarael in last year already did wonders to the travel intensity and tourism), but it's still the way things done. --77.35.17.137 11:56, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

Well, from the way I see it, you need a hotel confirmation for every night...right? So if one takes the T-S train, will simply putting so on your itinerary that is part of the visa application ok? Or do you need to go through a tourism agency for an invitation if you want to take the train?(WT-en) AHeneen 16:36, 25 February 2009 (EST)

That's a matter of debate, but in essence the answer is no. In theory you just need to register at every city you're in, The hotel are required by law to do that, only exception is Hostels, which don't count as hotel by law, and as such are not required to do so. It's basically just a photo copy of a form with a stamp, date and signature. Also in theory (and by law) you are only required to register if you stay in a city for more than four days - but in practice this makes you vulnerable to corrupt police officers. And finaly, I was only ever checked once, and that was by a grumpy old lady at Soviet hotel (who'd probably been behind that desk since Soviet times), even though I crossed both the border several times (to Mongolia (exit & entry) and Japan (exit)) --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 18:35, 25 February 2009 (EST)

Yeah, I had problems upon arrival in Moscow (fall 2004) because I hadn't registered in any cities since the last time I was off the train. Even though I had all of my train tickets and receipts with me, the Moscow hotel wouldn't check me in. The clerk sent me to a government office to "pay the fine". Fortunately, the administrators at the office semi-apologized for the hotel and registered my visa for free. Basically, as Stefan suggested, you're more likely to run into that nonsense with bureaucracy-obsessed Soviet holdovers. If you stay at smaller, newer hotels, it's less likely to be an issue. (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 19:10, 25 February 2009 (EST)

Routebox implementation

I plunged forward and implemented routeboxes for the Trans-Siberian Railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, using an icon I made based on the CIA Factbook flag in the Russia article (I couldn't find a non-copyrighted Russian Railways icon to use). I am not personally familiar with the route, so it would be great if some people could follow up and see if you agree with the control cities I used, etc. After completing it I also noticed that there is some discrepancy between the station list I used (from Wikipedia's infobox here) and the station list on our page. Can someone point me to a complete station list and/or help to hammer this out? Some of the discrepancy may be caused by our page's inclusion of some branch lines (e.g. Tomsk), which I was thinking to include as tertiary entries (see the inclusion of Blagoveshchensk in the routeboxes on the Chita and Birobidzhan pages for an example). Thanks in advance to anyone who can help get this working properly... (WT-en) Texugo 11:17, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

Tomsk and Tobolsk are not technically on the line, but on short branches, they are non the less some of the major stops for travellers on the transsib - in large part due to LP touting them as some of the top stops. There are also two places where the line splits in two - Moscow-Kazan/Nizny Novgorod-Ekaterinburg & Ekaterinburg-Petropavlosk/Tyumen-Omsk - though currently we are probably using the "official" definition. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 12:57, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

Also, it might be usefull to indicate where the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian branches off? --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^Talk 13:00, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

I'll see about getting icons made for those. Of course it doesn't make sense to use the Russian flag background for them though, but I'll see what I can come up with... (WT-en) Texugo 13:02, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

Hi I'm planning a trip across russia and I want to begin in Eastern europe, and take a train into moscow then onto over to mongolia. I don't know where ot begin with any of this and wiki travel has been amazing so far, but I want to spend several days in mosco and ikutrsk (sorry if its spelled wrong). I was wondering how to go about setting all this up, which is cheaper, and how the whole system works i guess, also any suggestions one where to begin in east europe, based on price and which ones the best.

Hi, Please add information about stopping over for a day or two at various intermediate cities en route, say Irkutsk and Ekaterinburg. How to arrange, how many stops, for how many extra days, at what extra costs? Thanks! —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 50.131.220.136 (talk • contribs)

Accuracy of information

Train 100 goes via Yaroslavl, not via Nizhny Novgorod... I think that I have comments to about every paragraph of this nice text. Many things are really odd, outdated, or simply inaccurate from the very beginning. The question is when should I start making edits? And should I (or we keep this article as a foreigner's impression about Russia)? --Alexander (talk) 22:15, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

If you can improve the article, by all means go ahead and edit starting whenever convenient for you. It would be nice if it were soon since the article is nominated for Dotm.

I wonder about "The further east one comes, the poverty gets more visible and the towns more puritan." First, there's a grammar problem. Either "The further east one comes, the more poverty one sees and the more puritan the towns get" or "As one travels east, the poverty gets more visible and ..." would be OK.

Also, what is "puritan" supposed to mean there? Better to say "the people become more conservative", "the towns become more spartan" or some such. Pashley (talk) 23:31, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

So...more than half of the text now in the article is translated from the German Wikivoyage by me, and that version is written in a very personal language and many passages there are rather odd. I tried to omit the most personal and odd parts but obviously some of them are still left. I had a suspicion that the German article was to some extent outdated, as they suggested that tickets can be bought just at the stations or in travel agencies! Finally, I was afraid that there would be a couple of literal translations (as the one Pashley spotted) or other funny sounding stuff I've inadvertently introduced as my native language is neither English nor German. Good I did call railway cars "wagons" only once (and now that's fixed). The descriptions of the cities in the tables are basically compilations from Wikivoyage articles, so if they are wrong, so are the articles.

In other words, please go ahead and edit anything that's wrong or weird. I've not traveled on the Trans-Siberian but that might change in the future. ϒpsilon (talk) 05:40, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

The road is the life?

What is the source of this being said by the ancient Romans? Not that we need to state the source in the article, of course, but I cannot find any reference to this at all when searching google, and if there were such a saying in Latin, I wonder whether it might have a somewhat different standard translation that might be more familiar? That part appears to have been translated from the German WV article, and is probably not how we usually say it in English, if such a thing exists. Texugo (talk) 14:19, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, it's a translation of Schon im alten Rom gab es die Redewendung: „Der Weg ist das Leben“. I can't find it either (and the quote in German is the title of a book by some sculptor...), so maybe we should just remove it. ϒpsilon (talk) 16:45, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

Stereotypes?

Is this really useful information for the traveller?

It seems like the Russians are still trying to cope with the new situation of capitalism. As older people seemingly for the most part crave for the old times, young people welcome the new liberty with open arms.

Many Russians may seem dismissive and introverted, but if you get to talk to them, they will tell you their life story. Alcohol and some Russian knowledge are very helpful in breaking the ice.

The nomadic lifestyle of the Mongolians has made good hosts out of them. Foreigners are welcome guests. However building up a personal connection to them is somehow a work of art.

In China the family is very important. Encounters are characterized by mutual respect and the people are usually very helpful.

First of all, does Russia really experience "liberty" today? Second, isn't building a personal connection with anyone from anywhere a "work of art"? Third, is it only in China that the family is very important? Just how helpful are these generalizations? Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:27, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Delete. This stuff isn't really helpful at all, when I now look at it; I'd even say it sounds pretty idiotic and it's not completely correct English either. I translated the whole German version of the article a few months back (fourth language to third language late at night...). That particular section is translated from this. There were many awkward sounding parts in German version that I left out but it seems that some of that still followed along. :P ϒpsilon (talk) 08:48, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Glad you agree. I'm going to plunge forward and delete this section; I doubt anyone will miss it, but if they do, it's right here for them to pick whatever they think is somehow useful (if anything) and reinsert it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:04, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Actually, your solution was better. Thank you. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:05, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Hilarious squirrel picture

I was looking at the content of external pages that this article links to and ran into this (you have to scroll down a little bit). ϒpsilon (talk) 18:31, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately that weblink has since died :-( Hobbitschuster (talk) 10:52, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Added routes

I added the other 3 routes for the mapframe, also you can click on the lines and get the title and description as well -- hopefully there will be an easier and less problematic way of doing this in the near future. Cheers! -- Matroc (talk) 00:51, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

bi-monthly; bi-weekly and less ambiguous terms

So this edit changed "bi-weekly" to "bi-monthly". Now it may well be that the frequency has been reduced, but more likely people disagree what the term means. It can be understood to mean twice a week/month or every two weeks/months. Why don't we use an unambiguous wording? Hobbitschuster (talk) 10:52, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Semi-weekly means twice a week. Bi-weekly means once every two weeks. These shouldn't be ambiguous in English? K7L (talk) 13:06, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Please remember that many of our readers are not English native speakers and the terms are not self-explanatory or very common. I think we should use the more straightforward "x times every interval of time" or "on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays" or the likes. Hobbitschuster (talk) 13:09, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Some people use biweekly to mean twice a week. Even if they are wrong, it happens, so unambiguous terms like "twice a week/month" should be used. Ground Zero (talk) 13:14, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Touting?

I am removing a paragraph from Fares:

There will be a new connection from Moscow to Beijing starting October 2016 for as little as €294, including reservations and couchette supplements but you have to change the train twice. Sold by Transsib Reisen at original Russian fares with a tiny extra. sites.google.com/site/transsibirischeeisenbahn

It may very well be that this is valuable information, so I put it here for easy reinsertion, but it was placed as the opening paragraph, which to me looks like touting. Hopefully somebody who knows the line can put it in context if it is a good deal. --LPfi (talk) 07:04, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

Platform sellers

The info on platform sellers should be consolidated. Now we say

"Everybody can get out of the train, and there are often people on the platform that offer a variety of fresh local food"

but also

"Between Beijing and Novosibirsk, platform vendors were observed only in Choir, Mongolia, and Mariinsky, Russia."

Date was removed from the latter ("June 2017"), has the observation been confirmed later? A "vendors were observed" sounds odd without a date.

--LPfi (talk) 14:01, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

DBS ferry?

tried to read the site via google translate and it warned me that the site was being deceptive. visiting it without going through GT doesn't trigger this. somebody with more knowledge of this sort of thing than me should make sure the link isn't up to no good. --174.74.56.57 19:22, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

The site looks odd (what has Turkey presidency to do with Vladivostok ferries?). Perhaps Google checked something. Anyway, I assume the site has expired and got bought by somebody else, as a redirect to a blog doesn't seem sensible for a ferry company. Can somebody find a working link for the ferries? –LPfi (talk) 22:09, 25 June 2023 (UTC)