I know the Vientiane - Kunming train is finally in service - has anyone seen or heard anything about the other routes? (ie Ürümqi - Almaty/Astana, Beijing - Ulaanbatar, Hanoi - Nanning) I'll even take wildly unfounded speculation at this point.
I’m also interested in the train from Beijing to Ulaabatar. As far as I know, international trains from/to China are still closed.
At least in the Ulaanbaatar–Beijing direction, it is possible to do this with a few changes. The Mongolian railway runs trains from Ulaanbaatar to Erlian, and then you can take Chinese domestic trains with a change in either Jining or Hohhot. In the other direction, eticket.ubtz.mn doesn't list Erlian as a possible departure station, so I'm not sure how you'd go about obtaining the ticket for that. But you can cross the border using the cottage industry of jeeps that offer the service, and then hop on a train in Zamyn-Uud.
Seasoned train travelers may know that mid-December means international timetable change, which is approaching. I've just come across a good article...
Last post
Interesting - the Belarusian train booking page currently lists a connection between Khujand and Dushanbe - running daily up until 23/11/23 (i.e....
Some train traffic between Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia has been reinstated.
I doubt that this will be of much use for most travelers...
Last post
Even for marshrutkas it shouldn't be as much of a problem if you're willing to pay for additional seats.
I figure that a bicycle in a box could even...
