Either out of our boredom or maybe because our blog readers would be curious…we thought it might be of interest to give some stats and describe a typical day on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Here goes…
The route from Moscow to Vladivostok is 5,741 miles according to the published schedule posted outside our compartment #5 in coach #7. There are fifty-nine stops along the way ranging in duration from one minute to thirty minutes. In total, the trip is 146 hours and thirty-three minutes or about six days. Accounting for stop times of 367 minutes, the train averages a speed of about thirty-nine miles per hour.
The Trans-Siberian is not a specific train but rather, a route from end to end. And, while the western end is Moscow, the eastern end could actually end (or start) at one of three places, namely Vladivostok (the traditional route), or Beijing, China, or Sovetskaya Gavan, Russia. We chose Vladivostok as the beginning point because (1) China would have meant purchasing another visa, and (2) the other place in Russia was much more difficult to travel to.
Our train, #001 is an express train and is the fastest one available from Vladivostok to Moscow. It leaves every other day (even-numbered days) from Vladivostok. Likewise, train #002 does the same from Moscow so that somewhere about now as we are writing this, those two trains are passing by each other in opposite directions on their six-day journey. There are literally hundreds of slower trains that ply the route and are used by the locals to get wherever they are going but obviously the trip would be much longer and unlikely to have first class sleepers or any sleepers and\or restaurant cars for that matter.
There are twelve coaches being pulled by one engine. There’s one restaurant\bar car and eleven people-coaches. First-class compartments sleep two people, second-class compartments sleep four people and third class coaches are somewhat of an open affair that appears to sleep fifty to sixty in hammocks. We walked through it and it appeared to be mostly young backpackers, some of which smelled rather gamey. The restaurant car is nice but grossly overpriced. Our ticket includes one dinner and as usual, Bill thought it was pretty good…Andrea thought it was gross.
We’ve travelled on quite a few overnight trains around the world over the years and we’d give this one a C+. It’s comfortable and clean and the ride is quite smooth. But, there’s no lavatory, toilet or shower in our compartment and the TV is Russian channels only. The interior is basically two sofas facing each other with a nice, big picture window. Table in the middle. The sofas fold down at night to make a nice, comfy bed with two down pillows. The upholstery is turquoise velour…1980’s vintage. There are four reading lights but only one plug for all our devices. The Provodnitsa is in charge of the HVAC for the coach but Andrea is trying to take over that responsibility. There are two WC’s at the end of our coach and the Provodnitsa keeps them very clean. Also, there’s a shower in the next coach that can be rented for about $3. There also is a giant boiling hot-water dispenser on each coach that comes in handy for coffee, soups, noodles, etc.
We’ve slept very well each night…beds are firm but comfortable. Although we brought plenty of food and drink, we have really enjoyed the stops along the way where we can purchase the local food from the vendors.
Our days have started with a few cups of coffee at sunrise…around 6:30, breakfast of breads, oatmeal, cheese and fruit. Then, lots of reading, watching movies on the I-pads and just staring out the window at the fascinating and ever-changing scenery. The larger cities have the high rise soviet-style living quarters everywhere but in the rural areas it is extreme poverty…by our standards…with all the houses made of plywood or logs, dirt roads and outhouses. But, the stores and markets we have been into are overflowing with goods, foods and products and people everywhere are spending so it certainly appears that the Russian economy is thriving. The people are stand-off-ish but if you engage them with a smile and an attempt to talk their language they are genuinely friendly. We’ve not experienced any anti-American stuff but certainly we stand out in appearance and dress. Unfortunately, we’ve chosen to say we are from Australia when asked by someone in casual conversation…better safe than sorry.
Yesterday, we made a thirty-minute stop at Novosibirsk, a beautiful station with several marble statues of mother and child waving goodbye and father and child embracing. Also, there was a giant bronze plaque in Russian that of course we could not read except for the dates 1941-1945. There were several fresh roses laid at the foot of the plaque. So, upon research, we found that this station, during World War II, sent more boys off to the Russian front than any other train station in Russia. Likewise, the most boys from this area did not come back. We thought it was a very fitting tribute for a rather obscure fact along the way.
In about two hours we will stop at the station in Yekaterinburg. This town has a special meaning for Bill, if you can believe that! Here’s the story:
In 1917 after the Bolsheviks deposed the last Tsar of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were exiled to this town. On a night in July 1918 the Romanov family were all taken to the basement of a house and murdered by gunfire, covered with acid and burned. Some years later, rumors began circulating that one of the daughters, Anastasia had actually survived the gunshots and a sympathetic guard saved her, hid her and nursed her back to health. Over the years every so often someone with bullet wound scars would surface claiming to be Anastasia and of course laying claim to the dynasty and all it’s fortunes. Several ladies did in fact have intimate knowledge of things that would seem to have been known only by a royal. DNA testing was either not advanced enough to substantiate the claim or there was not a Romanov baseline from which to compare. Either way, to our knowledge Anastasia was never confirmed to have survived but it certainly made an interesting story.
Now, the relevance here is that this story was the subject of Bill’s high school senior English term paper. His teacher was the beloved Captain Paul Tate, feared for dispensing C’s, D’s and F’s with regularity for sub-standard, half-assed work but thanked by so many in years to come for preparing high school seniors so well for freshman English 101 when we got to college. Bill spent a ton of time researching, preparing note cards, typing and doing all the things you did back then for a term paper. The result: A-. Not an A+. Too many misspelled words, I guess. But…I DID get an A+ in freshman English 101 and I HAVE thanked Captain Tate many times over the years for his wisdom as a teacher in the classroom. Anyway, that story was fascinating then and it has remained so all the years later. But, never in Bill’s wildest dreams did he think he’d ride through the city where all that history occurred.
So, that’s a glimpse of things on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It truly is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
