Way to Russia Talk Lounge

friskus · Just Starting Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 1

I have checked the price for train 04# from Moscow to Beijing, and compared it with train 04# Moscow to Irkutsk. And it is cheaper to buy ticket to beijing instead of Irkutsk, on the same train. I checked the prices through waytorussia.net.

Because i dont have a mongolian visa, i have to go on the Trans-Manchurian instead. So is it better to take train 04# to irkutsk, and then train 20# to beijing, or is it better to go train 20# all the way?

I also saw that there is another train going from moscow to irkutsk, train 010, and it is actually one day faster than train 04#, and cost 1/4 of 04#. Why is that. Is train 04# four times better?

when i search for trains from moscow to beijing, i find the trans-mongolian that cost 374$, but also another train 004 W that only cost 60$ and it takes one day longer than train 04#.

romdur · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Posts: 151 Location: USA

I don't know anything about the trains themselves, but every few weeks someone posts a question like yours, and the answer turns out to be that the waytorussia page on the train fares is incorrect... so this will probably be the explanation for the crazy fare difference: the $60 fare that looks "way too cheap" is probably "way out of date."

<plea> Won't somebody who knows something about the Trans-Sib do some homework and bring this page up to date? It's almost better to have no information, than grossly incorrect information. </plea>

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

WayToRussia · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:16 am Post subject:

Look, let me clarify it again: we try to update the prices on Way to Russia as much as we can, but there are thousands of them. We just can't keep up sometimes. All I can tell you is that when you request the actual quote through http://trains.waytorussia.net - their markup is usually 10-20% on top of the total price. So if you're unhappy with their offer you still have an option of going to a train station in Russia and buying it by yourself.

However, most train prices were updated this winter, so they should be more or less correct.