Ukranian Railway System

Train in Ukraine is the most common mean of transport with thousands of passengers daily. So if you want to see not only Kiev but also other places in Ukraine you will have to take a night train. It will bring you to your destination and moreover you spare 1 night hotel. There are 2 types of long-distance trains:

• fast train ('skorry poezd') - train with number from 1 to 160. Very comfortable and quickly trains, they stop only on large stations. They have more convenient arrival/departure hours and are 10-20% more expensive. Average speed - 70-90 km/h.
• passenger train ('passazhirskiy poezd') - trains with number from 170 to 660. Looks same as previous type but with great number of additional stops. Average speed - 40-60 km/h.

In these trains you have 3 types of coaches:

- Open-plan dormitory cars (‘platskart’ or 3rd class) - photo.

- 4-berth compartment (‘cupé’ or 2nd class) - photo.

- 2-berth compartments (‘SV’ or 1st class) - photo.

3^rd is the most used class so if you want to make your trip cheaper you can take this. Average price from Kiev to Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv is 50-70 UAH (now it’s 4-6 EUR) included place reservation and bed sheets.

2^nd class looks same as 4-berth compartment coach in Europe or even more comfortable. Prices are 120 – 160 UAH (10 – 13 EUR).

1^st class prices are from 400 till 700 UAH (35-60 EUR) depends on distance and type of train.

Please, note that knowing some Ukrainian or Russian is a useful skill while getting the tickets at the railroad office since knowing foreign language is not a requirement for working there.
Also, tickets cannot be reserved or put on hold, they can be bought only.

To buy a ticket you have to provide following information:

departure and arrival stations, date, type of coach. You can try to learn some Russian/Ukrainian words or write the data in English on a piece of paper and give it to dame in counter. Generally people in Ukraine are very friendly and somebody from the line after you definitely will help you.

Please note that in summer time and during the vacation number of free places in trains is less than people who want to travel.

Links:

www.uz.gov.ua – Ukrainian Railways (unfortunately only in Russian and Ukrainian)

http://uz.gov.ua/?m=services.transppl.ScheduleOra&lng=ru – interactive train schedule/Russian

www.bahn.de on web page of German rail you can find also Ukrainian train schedule

http://www.railway.te.ua/guidebook/en_phrases.htm - Russian/English train vocabulary

If you are travelling from Kiev to Lviv or Simferopol I would advise you to use Wizzair Ukraine - new budget airline where you can get tickets already from 10 EUR (one-way, taxes included).