Motorbike on russian trains
 

Hi, has anyone taken a bike on russian trains? i was thinking of doing so if possible from lake baikal to western russia.

i can speak russian, if that helps to negotiate

I quote from the website of someone who managed to put a bike on the train in 2009.

"There's 2 ways to do this, the official way, where you buy a ticket, & crate the bike & send it via freight. Or the 'other' way, where you go to the docks, & try to bribe your way onto a train with the bike."
motosapiens.org; View topic - 08-03 Chita, Russia

The 'other' way is probably easier in a smaller city...

Try Nath
 

he put his bike on a train this year from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow

Don't even bother 'officially' enquiring via the railway company, all you can get is stupidly slow container transport.

Railway workers advised us that it's possible to stick motorcycles on the post trains, but we needed to go to a different station and we never did, so I can't advise on how easy/expensive that is.


My bike went from Krasnoyarsk (1000km west of Irkutsk) to Moscow, around 4000km journey. It was with a small rail frieght firm, that only transported stuff between those two cities. A contact Colebatch put us in touch with took us to the railyard and helped arrange it - Bike was sent as 115kgs of 'autoparts'. Cost was so little it was basically free. Even if you sent your bike as more weight I think it'd still work out cheap. Colebatch's friend Dima was very helpful, he seemed pleased to be helping other motorcyclists and proud to show us his home city.

seems that it is deff possible, cheers guys

there is some official ways lice cargo companies
http://www.gruzovozoff.ru
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bike delivery across whole Russia wil cost about 150-300Euro (depends on weight and size) and take up to 2 weeks.

But if you decide to take a train by yourself it is way cheaper to put a bike to special cargo wagon (within same train) for 10-20% of this amount.

i'm live in vladivostok and 4 years already every spring put the bike at train to moscow and then back at autumn. it's very easy.
from vladivostok to moscow time is 9-10 days for 8000 rubles (250EUR). from moscow to vladivostok it's about 2 weeks and 12000 rubles (380EUR) i don't know why!:)

Kostya

Do you know anything about shipping cars on the trains from Vladivostok? I'm guessing it's possible as freight maybe?

Ship by train - where to?
 

Why ship (train)?
It's tarmac 99% of the way to the west using the Trans Siberian Highway - and the unsealed 1% is fully graded and ready for final surfacing when the warmer weather comes.
The present subzero temperatures will keep it solid until then.

The biggest problem driving a car would be the abject boredom for almost 2 weeks to Moscow. Then there is another 4-5 days driving to London (or Brittany;-)) ) - although I have ridden it twice in under 3 days, once more in just over.

Well partly I was asking for Mike as he asked in THIS post. I guess the reason to ship, or ship back is to avoid the abject boredom, and the retracing your steps. Better to spend longer getting there, exploring on the way, and then let the train take the strain getting back I reckon.

Alex
Sorry, not seen that thread brefore. I was just out of Vlad to Vanino and fighting the BAM road back to Siberia at the time!

But he says he is not too concerned about getting the vehicle back - just donating to someone who can deal with the paperwork - presumably of abandoning it. I can put him in touch with people out there who could work out a deal.

Mike, PM me.

Or Alex, you have my Email.

yes, it's possible. from vladivostok to moscow is about month , price is 50000 rubles (1100-1200 EUR). and for another cities ( Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk etc. ) too.
last time i heared about condition of transsiberian highway from Chernyahovsk (near Chita) to Svobodny (near Birobidzhan) was this august. 99% tarmac - is not true. it was most problem part of highway.
and you know, this part is not interesting - only taiga around :)
But , if you want to make a trip continuosly without a brake will be better go by youself all distance, beacouse you'll need to wait a car in any cities (train of autotrack with your car).
and, it's not so difficult. and big "bird" in your life:)

will be glad to help.

We did it in 2oo8 from Irkutsk to Moskau and had help (2 guides) from this company: Baikal Tours, accommodation, adventure at Baikal, in Siberia, travel service at Baikal .
They managed the booking for us and the bikes and everything worked OK.

The bikes where in the same train in such beautiful transportboxes they build at the station:
Mongoleiour Photo # 330 :thumbup1:


Andreas

It's asphalt now from Vladik to 30 km before Magdagachi. Between Magdagachi and Skovorodino its half asphalt and half "grader", but they are working on making it asphalt.

Andreas,

Thanks for the information.
How much was the charge for sending motorcycles from Irkutsk to Moskow?