Sapsan is a high-speed train cruising along St. Petersburg – Moscow and St. Petersburg – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod routes. A typical European train, in its Russian version it possesses some nuances you’d better keep in mind. We’ll tell you about pricing policy, entertainments onboard, transportation of animals, classes of service and the specifics of seats.
Sapsan’s Essentials Sapsan serves two routes:
Sapsan departs (and arrives at) in Moscow from:railway station (85, Nevsky avenue, Ploschad Vosstaniya subway station).
Moscow. The Leningrasky vokzal railway station
Travel time between Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sapsan is 3.5 – 4 hours. That’s normally what you spend if you would fly by plane.
In 2019, there are 15 Sapsan daily flights in each direction starting at 05.45 till 21.00. There are two departures every two hours throughout a day with a 10 minute interval between them. Passengers of the latest flight cannot catch subway in St. Petersburg and have to hail taxi .
Sapsan’s maximal speed is 250 km/h, but the train reaches this speed only on some stretches. The average speed is just 160-170 km/h.
Numbers of coaches are in ascending order:
There are ongoing discussions about what’s a more convenient way to travel between these two cities. Generally speaking, it’s up to you, the both options are of similar prices and travel times (otherwise, there would have been no discussions). But concrete circumstances can make one option more attractive than the other, for example, the concrete location in a city you start from or you arrive in.
To sum up, Sapsan «pros» are:
Sapsan «contras»:
Sapsan is managed by the Directorate for High-Speed Transportation, a department of the Russian Railways company (RZD).
It’s recommended to arrive for boarding 20-30 minutes before departure to get through inspection procedures without hurrying.
When boarding you must present your passport or any identification document which you used to purchase a ticket. If you purchased the ticket online, then demonstrate the passport (ID) only.
You must also have legal documents for your children.
Of those who are not passengers, only people accompanying children, disabled people, and seniors are allowed to enter a coach to help with baggage and accommodation.
Coach Layout Regarding the number of coaches in a train, there are two types of Sapsan:
All the coaches in a 10-coach section are interconnected by a walk-through. A double Sapsan of 20 coaches has no walk-through between the two 10-coaches sections.
Seats are laid out just like they are in a plane, by two rows with two seats in a row. But unlike a plane, part of seats is located the other way round.
Economy class
Another distinction from a typical plane layout is that each coach, except the First class, has a face-to-face table for four in the middle.
All coach layouts can be found here .
Tip : We suggest you book seats on the face-to-face table when you’re traveling with friends, families, or colleagues. If not, you’re playing Russian roulette as you cannot know what kind of person will be across from you. Don’t forget that the typical travel time is about four hours, so spending this time with a family with little noisy kids or someone who doesn’t bother to follow eating etiquette will hardly bring you joy and pleasure.
Another important point here is that stretching your legs when seating at the table is impossible without getting your front fellow traveler bothered.
Choosing seats on a coach is being made when booking. So, choose carefully so that not to seat in contrary to the train’s direction or get stuck at the table with a company of three youths heavily drinking vodka.
All coaches are equipped with luggage room and clothes hangers.
There are swaddle tables in toilets of coaches 6 and 16 (in a double Sapsan).
Two big panels in a coach demonstrate the current speed of Sapsan train, air temperature outside, and point of the route you’re passing by.
Power sockets are only available in Economy+, Business (one socket for two seats), and First class coaches. You can find them in Economy too, but there are only a couple of them for the whole car.
Every seat has a reading light, a steward call button, and a drop-down table.
There is Wi-Fi on Sapsan, but it is reported to work badly, even in Business class. Our own trip in Economy class proved it. You’d better rely on mobile Internet only, whose connection may also disappear from time to time.
Important : seats on Sapsan don’t recline in the way you may have accustomed to see it, not like in an airplane. They transform in another way: the back moves backward a bit, the seat moves forward a bit, so your body feels a bit more relaxed. Look how it’s done in the video below:
VIDEO
Sapsan has a dining car, and you can buy tickets for this car (details below). There are also trolley sales of food, snacks, and drinks during a flight. A special service lets you have a cup of coffee delivered to your seat.
Important : you can bring your own food and drinks onboard of Sapsan or any other Russian train.
Service And Classes On Sapsan train Sapsan offers seven classes of service and price (from the cheapest on to the most expensive):Basic ;
Paid services, which are not included in the fare and available for passengers of any class for extra pay:
Free services for each class on Sapsan (included in fare) A restaurant car class: meal for the sum of 2,000 rubles, entertainment media center, shoe brush machine.
Standard class: audio, video, in-flight entertainment system (movies in English available).
Economy+ class: all the services of Standard class plus light meal (you can choose it before trip when booking), shoe brush machine, access to (bad) Wi Fi, phone recharge.
Business class: all the services of Economy+ class plus kids’ travel set, unlimited drinks, press, travelling rug, pillow, and access to VIP-room at railway stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tver.
First class: all the services of Business plus a comfortable cradle sleeper.
As of July 1, 2018, a new class was introduced – Basic, without any extra services. Fare starts at 1906 rubles one way.
Conference compartment is space in the First class car just behind a driver’s cabin which can accommodate up to four persons. There is a table here, monitors and a leather sofa, in other words, it looks like a small office. The compartment is purchased as a whole no matter how many persons travel. Service is premium here with food, travel sets, press included in the fare.
Business and First classes offer fewer seats which means wider seats, more leg and elbow room, less fellow travelers, i. e. a lesser risk of being accompanied by a loud family with little kids.
We advise you look at Business and First classes too when booking as the difference with the cheaper classes due to the dynamic pricing of Sapsan may prove not so considerable.
The in-flight entertainment system is packed with movies, audio books, music, news. To use it, you need to connect your device to onboard Wi Fi. If you don’t have your own device, a steward will give you a tablet.
Staff on Sapsan speaks English.
Each coach is equipped with two large screens demonstrating movies, but they are primarily in Russian and, to be honest, not of great interest. To hear the movie sound, plug your headphones into a jack near your seat. You find your headphones in a pocket of a seat (you’d better bring your own headphones with solid sound).
Prices For Snacks And Drinks On Sapsan We give you a few items and prices for them so that you could understand the pricing on Sapsan train in comparison to prices in cities. Generally speaking, they are 50-100 percent higher on the train than in St. Petersburg and Moscow shops and cafes.
Special Services On Sapsan Sapsan offers some services which are not of interest for most travelers, but will be useful for those with special needs.
— Coach 6 has a special room with equipment to fix a wheelchair for persons with disabilities. It is located with a WC for disabled persons and equipped with a steward call button.
For inquiries, whether your smartphone or photo camera is found, call +7 925 150 32 02 (the Leningradsky vokzal railway station in Moscow) or +7 812 457 40 03 (the Moskovsky vokzal railway station in St. Petersburg).
To get your belongings back, you are required to show your passport and a ticket for Sapsan.
— You can bring onboard your pets – dogs (with the exception of big ones), birds if you travel in Business, First or Economy classes. In the Economy class, passengers with animals take seats;
An important note : transportation of animal is already included in the fare for these seats (nearly 400 rubles), and you pay it no matter if you have pets with you or not. When traveling in the Business and First classes, you pay extra 900 rubles for transportation of animals. No extra pay for the compartment room.
Only one pet is allowed for one purchased ticket and maximum two pets for the same seat.
Transportation Of Bicycles On Sapsan The common rule for Sapsan: carry-on bag may not weigh more than 36 kg and exceed 180 cm as a sum of three dimensions in size. One ticket means only one carry-on bag.
A bicycle must be dismantled and packed so that the 180 cm rule is obeyed. Other than that, it will be your carry-on which means you cannot take a rucksack or something like that for free. The «one carry-on bag for one ticket» is typically not obeyed.
Regarding luggage, we mean big bags and suitcases, there is usually enough room in a special place for luggage, and personnel on the train normally doesn’t pay attention to who and how many bags has.
A special place for luggage
Tickets For Sapsan You can purchase tickets for Sapsan in several ways:https://poezd.ru/ (in Russian)
To book and buy tickets online via the website poezd.ru see the form below:
You write in your destination, select a train, then fill in personal data, the number of your passport, name, date of birth, cellular number, email and proceed to payment. You can pay with Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Webmoney, Yandex.Money, in cash at Euroset outlets, Qiwi machines, etc.
Sapsan uses dynamic pricing, the closer your departure date the more expensive tickets and the fewer cheap seats. In the summer days, it’s highly recommended to book in advance, as early as possible.
Departure dates on Fridays and Sundays also tend to be popular as many employees go between the two cities to spend weekend at home and then get back to work.
Prices For Tickets For Sapsan We looked at two departures dates so that you could better understand Sapsan fares: the first date is 90 days prior to departure, the second is seven days before it.
Booking 90 days before departure
Class of service
Fare starts at (rubles)
Basic
2600
Standard
3301
Economy+
3659
Dining car (meal for 2,000 rubles included)
5335
Business
6846
First
12 252
Conference compartment
40 885
Booking 7 days before departure
Class of service
Fare starts at (rubles)
Basic
2637
Standard
2601
Economy+
2959
Dining car (meal for 2,000 rubles included)
4635
Business
5446
First
10 432
Conference compartment
36 965
Once again, the prices above are strictly indicative, final figures depend on your concrete circumstances.
You can book tickets for several persons within the same online session.
Important note : when purchasing online you see your final fare after you have reserved your seat and moved on to check your booking. All the figures you see until this moment are not final.
Discounts For Sapsan Sapsan provides a few tariff plans with discounts. The discounts apply to fare only, not to commissions and surcharges (a sum you pay for a ticket consists of fare + commissions + surcharges).
Tariff plan Single The Single tariff plan is for a passenger occupying two neighboring seats. You pay 50 percent less for the second seat. A ticket for Single can be purchased at a ticket office only. This plan doesn’t apply to Conference compartment, First and Dining car classes.
Tariff plan Round trip There is a 20 percent discount for return ticket. The both tickets must be booked within the same reservation.
Tariff plan Honey Moon The discount for 50 percent for the Conference compartment is valid within a month after marriage registration.
Tariff plan for disabled people and their accompaniment There is a 40 percent discount for disabled people, persons with limited mobility and those accompanying them.
Sapsan Delay Compensation In case of delay of 60+ minutes you are eligible for compensation (doesn’t apply to service commissions and surcharges):
Getting compensation from Russian Railways for Sapsan delay Here is the following procedure:
Important : Russian income tax of 13 percent will be automatically paid from the sum of your compensation.
Some Interesting Technical Facts About Sapsan
1. Sapsan is a Russian version of the Siemens’s Velaro family called here Velaro Rus. The main difference is the adoption of the train for Russian severe winter. For example, a range of temperatures within which Sapsan can go has been enlarged (the train feels good under minus 50 degrees Celsius, or ); the bottom of the train is totally from snow and water.
P.S. In case you need a taxi to get to or from railway stations, you can rent a car, including a car with a driver, via the GetTransfer.com with their affordable prices and online calculation .
