im.daniel

Don't know how much I'll have here, but here goes! Looking to travel on the overnight train from Chisinau to Bucharest in December. Is the only way to buy a ticket at the train station - and how reliable is the Sunday service?

Kind Regards and Safe Travels!

farci

As an unashamed train-spotter I had to look this journey up just for fun. My first stop is always the excellent Seat 61 website.

Here's the interesting bit:
'To book the Bucharest to Chişinău train, either buy tickets at the international booking office at Bucharest Nord station as there are almost always plenty of places available even on the day, or e-mail the Wasteels office in Bucharest on [email protected] or via their website www.triptkts.ro. Their service has been reported as 'absolutely first class', and you can pick up the tickets in Bucharest. They have an office at Bucharest Nord railway station. Alternatively, telephone +40 21 300 2730 or +40 21 300 2731.

The Bucharest-Chişinău train cannot be booked online, nor can it be booked through the normal computer reservation systems used by western European railways and ticketing agencies.'

http://www.seat61.com/Moldova.htm#.VZECskao0sQ

Let us know how you fare!

Track

I took this train in November, 2010, (from Chisinau to Bucharest) and bought the ticket at a travel agency in Berlin that specializes in eastern Europe. I have no idea how they got the ticket. The Odessa-Chisinau ticket I had to buy locally.

im.daniel

Hi Farci and Track,
Thank you kindly for your replies (I honestly didn't expect any ). I did some reading on Seat61 prior to making this post as well (brilliant, brilliant website) - and was thrown off a little by the fact that you couldn't book a ticket online on the Chisinau-Bucharest route, but only v.v.

A tripadvisor thread from two years ago had some commenters saying that the train is usually half full anyway, and that a train ticket shouldn't be that hard to purchase on the day.

I will definitely report back here when we do (hopefully) make the journey. Worst comes to worst, we'll take a bus/flight.

Romanianflyer

It will be around 25-30 euro one way including a bed in a 4-person sleeper carriage. Service is actually very reliable on this route in my experience! Indeed no problem buying the ticket at the station from my own experiences, as the vast majority local of people perversely prefer to travel by cramped (mini)bus (which I have to say is at least much faster).

Do note that since March, the train runs currently only on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from Chisinau to Bucharest. But as December is after the annual timetable change, this may change again...

im.daniel

Hi Romanianflyer, glad to see a local chime in as well and thank you! Here's hoping it doesn't change!

Romanianflyer

Every year, in December and June (2nd Sundays of the month usually), the European train timetables are amended, but there are seldom huge changes in major routes.

Actually this reduction of trains (it was a daily service before) came a bit as a sudden surprise and was not so much a calculated timetable change. Newspapers spoke of financial difficulties at the Moldovan Railways. It has actually happened before at some times, so it could as easily being reversed to a daily service again in the future.

I think you can be pretty relaxed that at least there will be a train on Sunday - as it is highly unlikely they would all the sudden change departure dates when people are slowly getting used to them! Either that, or back to the daily service!

MaxJ91

I took this train in summer 2014. The train was really old but the train ride was really awesome! I bought the train ticket at the station in Bucharest and that was very easy, when me and a friend arrived at the train we were the only people in the whol first class train carriage. In the early morning you pass the border where the wheels of the train are changed. The carriages are being lifted for that, it's really interesting to see.

ragerforever

I took this picture about 2 weeks ago when I was in chisinau. I took the Bacau-Chisinau overnight train. Some of these trains are part of a very long route. Mine was from Bucharest to Moscow. Few days later I continued my journey to Kiev. I went to Chisinau train station the day of and while the cashier spoke limited english she wrote down the times of departure and respective costs of 1st, 2nd, 3rd class. I just pointed my finger at which departure time and which class and that was that. You can pay with credit card no problem.

Romanianflyer

Well Bacau is just an intermediate stop for the Bucureşti-Chişinău train. But Bucharest to Moscow? I cannot recall seeing any of such through wagons recently (it being withdrawn a while ago), nor can I recreate a direct journey by international train planners. The old traject used to be anyway through the border at Suceava-Chernivtsi, and not through Moldova what I can recall.

Right now the only way to Kiev/Moscow by train is basically changing trains in Chisinau. Or did I miss something and are there direct services/through wagons again?

ragerforever

You're right. I must have mixed it up. There are no direct trains. Change in Chisinau.

Romanianflyer

A pity, as I have to go to Kiev soon again myself, I was hoping you were actually right and through cars were reinstated again

Its sad to see actually how a once reliable rail service has gone downhill, same for the frequency of the Chisinau train, or the axing of the overnight train to Sofia and the direct train to Belgrade.

im.daniel

Hi Everyone, I thought I'd give an update on our experience.

Arrived in Chisianau on Friday, and went to the train station close by to our hotel (Cosmos). Very easy to navigate around, it's a small station - just turn right after using the main entrance for pre-paid reservations. Plenty of seats left available for Sunday's departure to Bucharest, and we were quoted 800ish lei for 2nd class and 1250lei for 1st class.

Difference between 1st and 2nd class is that 1st class has 2 'beds' and 2nd class has 4 'beds'.

Came back on Saturday with enough cash (Card purchase not available), and bought the tickets - we ended up opting for first class. Our carriage (#6) was surprisingly full - 75% occupied I would say.

The train journey itself was very smooth. Border crossing at Ungheni took 2-3 hours. They took our passports for an awfully long time (1 hour) and I started to get nervous, seeing as everyone else had theirs returned straight away. Turns out that we were chosen for a secondary screening (Australian passport), and we were required to sign a consent form afterwards on the return of our passports. Romanian border control was much quicker once we crossed the bridge.

We arrived in Bucharest at 6am. The station is very well signed, and we were able to figure out how to take an official taxi to our hotel. Lots and lots of touts at the taxi stand, quoting us 10euro to the Athenaeum. One guy even told us that the official machines are a scam and that they were broken!

But we knew to use the machine and order an official taxi which turned out to be 6 RON. Taxis can be hit and miss at that hour, but be persistent with the machine. Official Taxis won't leave without the receipt.

Thank you everyone for your input and help! It was a very easy journey in light of things.

Romanianflyer

Glad to hear your trip went all fine!

Bucharest's Gara de Nord (and taxi's in general) can be quite notorious for non-Romanian speaking people, so it's great that you managed to bypass all the rip offs easily.

FWIW (perhaps for future visitors reading this), fixed prices don't exist and are clearly a sign that it's a rip off. The official rate (can differ by company, a few have a bit higher!) is 1,39 RON per km and is always written on the side of the taxi. Taxi's must abide to this, so make sure the meter is on when driving. Any ride within the greater city centre is never more than 10-12 RON, even at night. Do make sure to enter with enough 10/5/1 lei bank notes though, to avoid a situation with a greedy driver having no change back for your 50 lei bill!

adventureadam

Thanks for this, am considering doing the same in June. What did you think of Chisinau overall?