Traveling is a very expensive pleasure, so every vacationer thinks in advance how to save money on tickets to another city. If your trip takes place unexpectedly for you, then extra costs are unlikely to be included in your plans, and buying cheap train tickets will significantly save your budget.
In our country, Russian Railways are the monopolists of rail transportation on the territory of the Russian Federation. This fact affects the high cost of tickets, sometimes comparable to the prices of plane tickets. Russian Railways does not hold promotions for which it was possible to buy cheap tickets, how then can you buy cheap railway tickets?
How to buy cheap train tickets
The cost of train tickets, of course, depends on the distance that you have to travel by train. Prices for long-distance tickets are always an order of magnitude higher than the cost of tickets to cities in the neighboring region. Tariffs are also affected by seasonality and the importance of state events: during the summer holidays and on the eve of holidays, the cost of tickets rises, and in winter and autumn tickets are always cheaper.
Russian Railways (Russian Railways) set not only seasonal coefficients, but also preferential (reducing) coefficients. In 2013, such grace periods were: February 1-21, February 26 – March 6, March 11 – April 25, the month of October and from November 5 to December 20. You can check all changes in seasonal and preferential coefficients on the Russian Railways website.
Russian Railways has one good tradition – on May 9, the cost of tickets is reduced by exactly 2 times.
How to buy cheap train tickets
Since May 2012, it has become possible to receive a 5% discount when buying railway tickets via the Internet (this discount is valid for tickets for SV, compartment and deluxe cars). By registering on the Russian Railways website and having a bank card, you can buy the cheapest tickets (no commission is charged in this case).
You can save on the cost of tickets if you buy them directly at the ticket office of the railway station. The price will include the commission fee and the tariff itself. When paying with a plastic card, you will also not pay a commission.
When purchasing tickets from intermediary firms, you will overpay 250 rubles.
When buying a ticket, consider the type of train and the comfort of the cars. The most expensive are fast and branded trains, when buying a ticket for a passenger train you can save up to 30% of the price. According to the comfort of the cars, they are divided into SV, deluxe, coupe, reserved seat and general. The highest price for tickets in CB, coupe and suite. Shared carriages are reminiscent of electric trains in their comfort – there are seats, if you go not far, then you can be patient, but you will pay 2-3 times less money than for a compartment or even for a reserved seat.
How to buy cheap train tickets
The ticket price will depend on which place (upper or lower) you will purchase. In the autumn-winter season, Russian Railways has made a privilege for passengers traveling on the upper shelves – they will pay only 50% of the ticket price for the lower seat. If you buy tickets at once in both directions, then your benefit is obvious – the cost of the trip will be equal to the cost of a ticket for one lower seat. When buying tickets in a reserved seat, you can save on “side” seats (lower and upper side seats). This is the most economical option, but unlike common places, you can sleep peacefully lying down.
You can buy tickets 45 days before your date of departure. Quite often it happens that an entire additional car is added to the sale or cheap additional trains are assigned. Most often, this happens in the summer in southern directions, during the holidays, or on holidays. In the spring, it is not always possible to look for cheap summer trains with second-class carriages. It seems that they are “adhere to” until the summer vacation season. Despite this, try to buy a cheap summer ticket, especially to the south of the country, in advance.