Home / Mongolia / Ulaanbaatar / Transportation

Ulaanbaatar Train Station

Located on the Teeverchid Street. The Ulaanbaatar Railway Station was formally inaugurated in June 1949. A direct railway connection was created between the PRC and the USSR in 1956 and this is when the Trans-Mongolian railway started operating. Soon, there was a significant expansion in the international rail routes. Today, you can find three platforms in Ulaanbaatar Railway Station of which two are the main ones. The station building has many waiting rooms along with a cafe and a recreation room. There are some shops and kiosks, currency exchange offices as well as a first-aid post and pharmacy that can be used by anyone traveling. If you reach the second floor, you will find a duty free shop, which is not always open but only before the scheduled departure of international trains.

More about the Railway Connect

Most of the 1,810 km (1,125 mi) of railway line is made up of the Trans-Mongolian Railway that connects China with Russia. Along with this, there are two spur lines: the coal-mining city of Baganuur (from Ulaanbaatar) and the other is to the copper-mining center of Erdenet (from Darkhan). You can find a weekly train running from the capital of Dornod aimag, Choibalsan, and goes till the Russian border.

There are some daily express trains that travel from the north to Darkhan, and on to Erdenet or Sükhbaatar. One can also find regular scheduled trains connecting Ulaanbaatar to Zamyn-Üüd through Sainshand and Choir. There is no domestic route for Trans-Mongolian Railway.

Some International Connections

Ulaanbaatar Railway Station has trains connecting the following international cities -

• Beijing
• Erlian
• Huh Hot
• Moscow
• Irkutsk
• Ulan Ude

When to Buy Tickets?

While travelling from Ulaanbaatar, it is important that you reserve a soft seat in advance. It can be as early as 60 days before departure. In general, booking in advance is a wise choice irrespective of the class you are traveling into. But there can be some hard-seat tickets available as well. One of the other options is to let your guesthouse or hotel purchase the ticket. For more queries, you can always contact the Ulaanbaatar train station.

What Are the Different Seats?

On domestic passenger trains, there are usually three classes - hard seat, hard sleeper and soft seat.

Hard seat are actually padded bunks. Usually there are no assigned seats for you and there can be any number of tickets sold. This makes the carriages crowded and dirty.

Hard sleeper which is also called platzkartnuu. It seems like the hard seat but you can get your own bunk. You can also get a set of sheets and a blanket generally at a price of T1, 500. Tourists can get upgrades to soft seat if they want to.

Soft seat comes with a much better condition. The price is generally the double of the price of the hard seat. The compartments in the soft-seat carriages are divided with four beds in each of them. Depending on how your compartment mates are, you can enjoy a sleep as there will be an assigned bed for you.

The Ulaanbaatar trains are slow but safe. If you are looking for comfort, make sure to Book 2nd class that offers four bunks per private cabin. In the third class seating, the bunks are not as comfortable as the previous one and also has lesser scope of privacy. It is better to get own snacks and water as the food is not of very good quality.

See more about Ulaanbaatar Transportation:

Chinggis Khaan International Airport How to Take Ulaanbaatar Bus Ulaanbaatar Taxi

5 Things to Know about Ulaanbaatar Traffic

- Last updated on Mar. 17, 2021 -