When booking a Russian train ticket and making the payment, you get an E-ticket. It is advisable to print it out as it'll need to be shown with your passport (or the official ID that was indicated during your booking) when boarding the train.
But since the information is partially in Russian, it might be confusing to read such a Russian train ticket.
In this video there's a detailed explanation of how to properly read and understand a Russian train ticket.
Sample Russian train ticket
To make the process of reading a Russian train ticket easier, take a look at the sample ticket in the image below and read about what each block means.
- You can find your ticket number on the very top of the E-ticket. It is a number indicated in red in the center. In the top right hand corner there is the order number. The order number and ticket number usually the same.
- Below the order number you can see your last name and the first letter of your first name as per your passport (or official ID used when booking the ticket). Then after the letters "ЗЗ" your passport number partially as well as your date of birth.
- The departure date is indicated in the top left column of the table right below the calendar sign. The arrival date is in the 4th column accordingly. Both dates are written in the DD.MM format.
- Departure time can be found in the second column of the train ticket under the little clock image; arrival time in the 5th. Keep in mind that the time is written in the 24-hour format.Important! Note that both the departure and arrival time are always written in local time and duplicated in Moscow time under the table.
- The larger middle column of the table contains route information and indicates your departure and arrival stations.
- In the last 6th column you can see the internal code abbreviation of your travel class. As a rule, "1" stands for First, Premium or Business Class, whereas "2" means Economy Class or similar.
- The central line of the table in the ticket has the following information from left to right: your train number (next to the Russian word "ПОЕЗД"), the coach number (by the word "ВАГОН"), and the seat number (after the word "МЕСТО"). If you see the phrase "НЕ У СТОЛА" by the seat number, it means your seat is not located beside the table; "У СТОЛА" stands for table seat.
- The bottom line of the table contains price information. Note that if food is included in the ticket price, there is a sign like "У1" that stands for 1 included meal per the whole train trip (even if the train trip takes several days). If food isn't included, there will be no such sign.