Russian Railways have introduced another great discount scheme for Sapsan passengers. That’s a good option to test your personal level of luckiness as you must be very lucky to use it as the train tends to be consistently fully packed.
In September, you can purchase a ticket for Sapsan, a high-speed train connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg, just for 50%. Two conditions must be kept:
• It must the day of the departure;
• There must be empty seats left.
So, the sum of these two conditions gives another, the third, condition: you must be a very lucky as Sapsan’s load factor is not very far from 100%. In the summer, the train tends to be filled with tourists, in the winter – with businessmen and civil servants. Our advice here is to try the daytime departures, they are less busy than the morning and evening ones.
Friday and Sunday departures are almost hopeless.
The discount applies to all seat classes and doesn’t apply to additional services.
As we wrote, earlier in September, another 50% discount was introduced for Sapsan – for those travelling seven days before or after their birthdays and their friends.