Uzbekistan Railways: Your Guide to Uzbek Train Travel

I was a little apprehensive before buying our train tickets. There are different train names and different names for the seats too.

Did I want platskartny?

What is a Sharq?

Some details were only in Russian. Should we have bought tickets in advance, or is getting them at the station good enough?

Buying train tickets isn’t difficult, but speaking from experience, there are a lot of unknowns if you have never done it before. We took four trains around the country, trying out different types of train and types of seats, and we understand how it all works now.

So, we’ve put together this Uzbekistan Railways guide to help you out with everything you need to know about Uzbek train travel.

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How to Book Your Train Tickets

Online in Advance

If you’re travelling in the high season, or if you know your exact dates are definite, I’d recommend booking tickets in advance because they do sell out.

You can book online between 30-45 days in advance depending on the specific train and tickets booked online are more expensive than those booked in person. We used the Uzbekistan Railway website to book all of our trains, but if you feel more comfortable with a more popular and user-friendly platform, you can also reserve tickets through 12Go.

🚄 Reserve your spot 🚄

In Person

You can also book tickets in person at the station (they’re less expensive than when you book online!), but they could sell out or have limited availability, particularly for busy periods and popular routes.

Make sure you have a translation app handy as the station staff may only speak Uzbek and Russian.

Tickets

We bought all of our tickets online through the Uzbekistan Railways website. They each had a QR code on them which meant that we did not have to print the ticket ourselves of get a physical ticket when we arrived at the station. This was my e-ticket 👇

Train Stations

The train stations are really beautiful historical or modern buildings! They have shops to pick up some snacks to take on the train and toilets to use before you head off on your journey.

Train Station ‘Check In’ or ‘Registration’

Train stations in Uzbekistan are all fenced off with entry only allowed through a monitored area. When you see that your ticket says you need to ‘check in’ at least 30 minutes before, this is what they are referring to.

Security guards will check your ticket, passport, and scan your bags. At busy times, queues can build up, so make sure you get there in plenty of time just in case.

Savvy Traveller Pro Tips 🇺🇿

After exploring Uzbekistan for three weeks, these are our favourite booking tools that we couldn’t travel without!

Travel Insurance: our favourite budget-friendly insurance is SafetyWing – no question.
Flights: we book flights through Trip.com to earn loyalty points to use on our next flights.
Accommodation: for the best deals and to build up loyalty points, we use Booking.com.
Transport: book high-speed trains on 12Go
Tours: Viator has a great selection of experiences at an affordable price.
Taxi Apps: download Yandex Go.
Food Delivery: Wolt (Tashkent only) and Yandex Eats
SIM: Beeline has great coverage across the country.
ESIM: be connected from the second you arrive with Airalo.

Types of Train

When you’re booking your tickets, you’ll see options for five different trains (as far as I am aware, it’s five anyway!). They are wildly different; some are super speedy, some are rickety and Soviet, some have air con, some don’t even have fans. All have toilets on board and free boiling water stations.

So here’s what you need to know:

Afrosiyob

The fanciest of all the trains, Afrosiyob is a high-speed train that would not look out of place in Japan! It’s obviously pricier, but the journeys are quick, seats are clean and modern with USB chargers, TVs, and you even get given a snack bag of sweet and savoury pastries with coffee and tea sachets.

There are options for VIP, Business seats or Economy. The only difference that I could determine here was that there is a little more space in Business and VIP: the seating arrangements are 2+1, as opposed to 2+2 in Economy; and VIP apparently has leather seats instead of regular fabric.

I would definitely say that it is not worth the extra money for Business or VIP.

Uzbekistan Railways Afrosiyob high speed train

Sharq & Nasaf

These are more of a normal train. They’re older and ricketier (who knew that was a word?) as they are trains from Soviet times. They’re clean and comfortable still but the journey will not be as smooth as the Afrosiyob.

The only seating option for these trains is Sitting, so yep, you just get a regular seat.

Uzbek train carriages from the Soviet era are a little rusty

Sleeper

(marked on the Uzbekistan Railways website in Russian as Пассажирский and скорый)

The least luxurious, but the most adventurous! Expect bunk beds and no aircon or fans. The ricketiest and slowest of them all.

There are three seating options for these train: Sleeper (or Platskartny), Coupe, or SV.

Platskartny are the least expensive tickets which correspond to open carriage with bunk beds usually stacked two beds high.

Coupe tickets are for a cabin with a door and two sets of bunk beds inside (total four beds). If you buy two tickets, you will be sharing with another two people.

SV are the poshest tickets which are for a cabin with two beds in.

We took the скорый but managed to just have a regular upright seat instead of a bed.

bunk bed setup of two by two in an overnight train in Uzbekistan

Russian Translation of Place Names

You’ll likely see the place names marked in Russian, so unless you’re up to speed on your Cyrillic, it can be a challenge. These are some of the most common destinations in Russian:

Ташкент – Tashkent
Хива – Khiva
Самарканд – Samarkand
Бухара – Bukhara
Маргилан – Margilon (Fergana Valley)
Ургенч – Urgench
Шахрисабз – Shahrisabz
Андижан – Andijan (close to Kyrgyz border)

an old Soviet sign on a train that has Uzbekistan written in Russian and a hammer and sickle emblem

What to Bring on the Train Journey

I recommend bringing tea bags/coffee sachets and a reusable mug because there are hot water stations for you to make your own drinks for free.

On our eight-hour train journey from Khiva to Bukhara, the locals even brought proper teapots with them to make bigger batches of tea, and then shared amongst everyone!

Also another top tip: free boiling water means that you can make yourself some instant noodles, instant soup etc. so if you are taking a longer journey, this is an easy meal to pack.

instant noodles on a train carriage in Khiva

There are toilets on board, but you never do know if there will be any toilet paper left, so bring a roll along with you.

Bring a power bank with you for charging your devices. The Afrosiyob does have USB charging points, but it’s best to have a power bank in case it doesn’t work. Other trains will not have chargers.

Bring a portable/battery powered fan if you’re taking a non-Afrosiyob train during the summer, they can get HOT. We travelled for eight hour from Khiva to Bukhara through the Uzbek desert in July on a Soviet train with no air con or fans. We sweated an obscene amount!

Top Tip

If you are taking an overnight train, keep a copy of your train ticket and any evidence of you being on that train until after you have left Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan requires police registration of every single night that you spend in the country, so you may be asked to prove where you were.

Plan more of your trip with these:

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