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Travelling by train between Moscow and St Petersburg

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Discover Russia, Russia by train, Travelling in russia

Travelling by train between Moscow and St Petersburg

01 August 2016

If you’re studying in Moscow, perhaps you may want to visit St Petersburg for a weekend, or vice versa. The most popular method of transport connecting Russia’s largest cities is the train. There are two types of train that are available: the longer sleeper trains, and the fast train (Sapsan).

Sleeper

These trains tend to be cheaper than the fast train, but take a longer period of time. The most efficient way to utilise this option for a weekend is to take one of the Friday evening trains. This enables you to sleep overnight on the train. You’ll arrive at the destination city early in the morning, giving you a full day to look at the sights without losing a day to travelling. For a cheaper price, there is sometimes the option of purchasing a ticket for a section of the train with seats rather than beds. However, I wouldn’t advise this for the overnight train: it will be more difficult to get a proper nights sleep, making you more tired when you arrive.

Sapsan

This is a faster train – usually around 4 hours. It is more expensive and less frequent than the sleeper trains. If you don’t want to sleep overnight on the train, then this option may be preferable. On board there are seats instead of beds.

Prices and How to buy

Liden & Denz have their own travel agency that can help you to buy tickets. To contact them, email [email protected]; or alternatively, dial (812) 382 0702.

If you want to purchase tickets independently, there are a number of English language websites that sell tickets for the trains. A number of different classes of tickets are available, from the very basic to the more luxurious. The tickets on English language websites tend to be more expensive.

A few sites are listed below. This is not by any means an exhaustive list, so searching online may help you find other sites.

If your level of Russian is good enough, or you have someone willing to help you purchase tickets from a Russian site, you may be able to find the tickets at a cheaper price. Another option is to use google chrome and translate the page into English. The best option however, is to find a Russian speaker who can help you buy them.

Examples of some Russian sites can be found here, here, and here.

Lawrence Toye, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Moscow

Posted by Lawrence Toye

Привет Everyone! My name is Lawrence, I’m 21, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK, and I’m pleased to say I’m the new social media intern at Liden&Denz Moscow for the next 5 weeks. This is only my first day in Moscow, so I still have so much to see and take in! I love learning languages and spent last year living in the Middle East and studying Arabic. When I started studying at politics and economics at university last September, I couldn’t resist doing a language course alongside. Even though I could’ve probably picked an easier language, I felt Russian would be the most rewarding. I was right! Despite the frequently confusing grammar, in particular the cases, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I’ve finished university for the summer, I decided to come here to to Liden&Denz to improve my Russian, and learn more about Russian culture. This is only my first full day in Russia, and I’m really excited to write about my thoughts, insights, and experiences of Moscow and learning Russian.