About the e-tickets booking process

Which tickets can be booked online on RussianRailways.com?

On our website you can purchase the following e-tickets:

E-Tickets for all long-distance trains within the territory of the Russian Federation and in connection with Finland open for booking 90 days ahead; the sales for the few trains between Moscow and St.Petersburg start 120 days ahead (these are "Red Arrow" Train #1/2 and "Express" Train #3/4).
E-Tickets for some commuter routes (short-distance and suburbian trains) - the sales open 10 days ahead;
E-Tickets for the train routes in connection with the countries of the former USSR (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) can be booked 45 days ahead; also, the sales for the most popular trains between Russia and Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania open 60 days ahead.
E-Tickets for other international trains (in connection with Europe and Mongolia) are open for sale 60 days ahead.

E-tickets online booking process explained

Enter the departure and arrival stations or cities (select from the list in the form) and the departure date. Click 'search'.
Selecting one of the train options proposed by the reservation system.
Select the seats on the seating chart. If the scheme is not available, select the number of passengers and set the seat preferences if there are any.
Enter the passengers' data into the fields on the website. The full name and ID number of each passenger must appear exactly as per the passport.
On the reservation step, the user receives the final information about the selected connection, the exact ticket price, and our service fee. The ticket price and the service fee are time-varying and fixed for the time of reservation (15 minutes). When the time of the reservation is expired, it will not be possible to confirm the reservation.
Before payment, please check the correctness of the data entered into the Reservation System, the selected connection (including departure and destination station, class, dates and times of departure and arrival), information on the payment deadline in order to purchase a ticket at the price indicated during the search in the reservation system.
Payments by credit cards are made through an authorized payment Operator (Uniteller). The user will be redirected to the payment page. Interruption of the purchase process at this stage does not result in payment obligation and does not entail a ticket issue.
After the correctly completed payment process, the User will be redirected to the Sucess page where the ticket purchase confirmation will be displayed.

Information about e-tickets booking

We provide online booking for electronic tickets via the reservation system of IM LLC. The system has certain features that are useful to know when booking tickets in it:

An E-ticket can be booked for no more than 4 passengers with seats in one order (and up to 4 children without seats). If you have more passengers, please, divide them into several orders, or send a group request if you would like us to assist you with the group booking.

When booking a VIP compartment that is sold entirely (such as the service class "1A", "1M", "1И"), the booking is available for no more than 1 cabin in 1 order. If you would like to book several luxury cabins, please, make several orders.

The booking system is not available between 3:30 and 4:00 Moscow time for technical reasons.

About the online payment for e-tickets on RussianTrain.com

After confirming the reservation, you will be redirected to a secure payment page, where you will have to enter data to pay for the order. You can use all the credit cards and prepaid cards belonging to Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and Mir. We use the secure payment system developed by Uniteller, which allows you to pay online with the guarantee of security and privacy. Transactions are not conducted with instruments managed by Russiantrain.com but with the servers using the secure technology of the Uniteller.

The security of Uniteller processing is confirmed by the PCI DSS payment card industry data security standard certificate. The reliability of the service is ensured by an intelligent system for monitoring fraudulent transactions, as well as the use of 3D Secure, modern technology for the security of Internet payments. Your card details are entered on a special secure payment page. Information is transferred to the Uniteller processing company using TLS encryption technology. A further transmission of information is carried out through closed banking channels with the highest level of reliability.

If your card supports 3D Secure technology, in order to make a payment, you will need to go through additional user verification at the issuing bank (the bank that issued your card). To do this, you will be directed to the page of the bank that issued the card. The type of check depends on the bank. As a rule, this is an additional password that is sent by SMS, a card of variable codes, or other methods.

How to cancel e-tickets at the website

Log in using the email that you used for booking and the password received by email.
Find your order in the list of orders in your Profile.
Push the 'Cancel' button next to the ticket you would like to cancel. If there is no such a button, the cancellation is not possible (if you are not sure why the cancellation is not possible you can contact our Customer Support team by email or phone).
Check the cancellation fee. If you agree, proceed with the cancellation by pushing the "Confirm" button.
The refund of the ticket cost except the cancellation fee will be transferred to your bank card (the card that was charged for the booking) within 14 days.

How to cancel e-tickets at the train station

If you booked the tickets at RussianTrain.com and then your travel plans changed, please, cancel via your Profile on our website. However, if you have no access to the Internet and need to cancel urgently, you can cancel your e-tickets at the train station (before the train departure).

You will have to provide the number of your e-ticket and your ID (passport) to the ticket office.
If you have already received a boarding pass printed on a travel document form, for cancellation you will have to submit this form and your identity document to the ticket office.
The refund of the ticket cost except the cancellation fee will be transferred to your bank card (the card that was charged for the booking) within 14 days.

E-tickets cancellation / amendment terms

You can cancel any seat in your order separately, or all the reserved seats. For e-tickets issued for a VIP car (a whole compartment with service class 1A, 1M, or 1N), a conference room on the Sapsan train (service class 1Р), 1st class sleeper car service classes 1E, 1B with the whole compartment paid for, and tickets for the trains from Finland, a refund can only be issued for all seats together (for cancellation push the button "Cancel all tickets").

For each canceled ticket we refund the price of the ticket minus the carrier's penalty and minus our cancellation fee. Our cancellation fee is 1400 rubles per seat. There is no refund if you paid less than 1400 rubles per seat. There is no refund if the amount left after deducting the carrier's penalty is less than 1400 rubles. The carrier's penalty depends on the route and the time left before the departure (below you can read more about these terms).
E-tickets for the routes within the Russian Federation and CIS and Baltic countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) can be canceled online no later than 1 hour before the train departs from its starting point (this time is indicated on your ticket); for these tickets, the carrier's cancellation penalty is minimal if you cancel more than 8 hours before train’s departure from the station where the passenger was to have boarded the train and is maximum if you cancel later than 2 hours before departure.
E-tickets for the international routes in connection with other countries can be canceled online no later than 1 hour before the departure from the train's starting station and no later than 6 hours before the train’s departure from the station where the passenger was to have boarded the train (time is specified in the control coupon of the electronic ticket). The cancellation penalty is minimum if you cancel no later than 24 hours before the departure.
If you are late for your train for the route within the Russian Federation, you can refund it to the ticket office at the station no later than 3 hours after the train departure.
Electronic train tickets cannot be amended or reissued. Instead of that you can return the old ticket and issue a new one.

Boarding the train

Please, be at the train station in advance. Usually, the boarding starts 30-40 minutes before departure. Every passenger will have to show his passport. For some trains, this is enough and the train attendant will find your ticket on his portative computer, while for others it will be also necessary to show the ticket.

If you purchased an E-Ticket with an e-registration, you will receive your ticket by email. For boarding the train, you have to show your ticket (printed or on the screen of your mobile device) and the passport indicated in your order (for each passenger).
If you purchased an E-Ticket without an e-registration, you have to change your e-ticket to a paper ticket. You can do this in a ticket office or a self-service terminal on the railway station on the territory of the Russian Federation. For boarding the train, you have to show the paper ticket and the passport indicated in your order (for each passenger).
If the passenger"s surname or identity document number does not correspond to the surname or number on the e-ticket, the passenger will not be allowed to board the train.

Visa and Migration Policies

Our company (and the carriers) will not be held responsible for any migration rules violation committed by passengers and can not refund ticket fare in case a passenger fails to follow the procedure of crossing the border.

If you travel abroad from Russia or your route has a transit through other countries, you have to make sure you have the necessary documents to cross all borders (visas or documents confirming you can travel visa-free). To be aware of the rules of crossing the borders of different countries, please, apply to the migration services of countries you are traveling to or transiting through.
If you are arriving in Russia from abroad, please, make sure you hold a valid Russian visa or have permission to enter Russia without a visa. On the border, you have to fill in a migration card which you have to show on your way back when leaving Russia. Make sure your migration card is always with you and take care of it during the whole trip.
The E-Visas to Russia are not valid for entering Russia by train (so far, trains are not equipped to verify electronic visas). So, if you arrive in Russia by international train, please, make sure that you have a common (not electronic) visa in your passport.

Service fee

The service fee is applied per person per seat and is included in the prices you see on our website. The amount of the service fee is from 1400 rubles to 1400,99 rubles. The final price and the exact amount of the service fee will be shown at the step of confirming the reservation. There is no service fee for the child's ticket if the child travels without a seat.