Is the website of the Mongolian railways down? How do I book tickets?

[meithecatte]

I am trying to find information on the Ulaanbaatar – Erlian/Erenhot train. There's lots of news articles about the reopening, so it seems settled that the train is indeed running. I would presume that the website to look up the timetable and book tickets would be https://eticket.ubtz.mn/ – but at least for me, it isn't even loading. Do you need a special VPN setup to use this website? Or maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? Please enlighten me ^_^

[sebhoff]

I don't know the answer, but sites like travelchinaguide.com are selling tickets: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/Intern ... 11/27/2023

[meithecatte]

That is an interesting website. I wonder whether it is up to date – it looks like the kind of thing where operators would type in the schedule manually, and it lists a direct train from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing, with train number 3 or 4 depending on the direction, with the schedule exactly matching the historical timetable of the Trans-Mongolian Moscow–Beijing train. Makes it look like the website hasn't been updated throughout the pandemic...

[meithecatte]

Okay, the website was indeed down. I can now access it. Interestingly, stations outside of Mongolia are only listed in the "destination" dropdown.

[andidas]

I can't access it right now. Is it down again or has anyone found a workaround?

[adi]

I can't access it right now. Is it down again or has anyone found a workaround?

Go to the station
Pay cash at counter
hop on on train
Worked well for 150 years before millennials needed to fix everything to the minute in advance.

[andidas]

I can't access it right now. Is it down again or has anyone found a workaround?

Go to the station
Pay cash at counter
hop on on train
Worked well for 150 years before millennials needed to fix everything to the minute in advance.

Can you stick with useful answers, Mr. Passive-Agressive?
Fight your unnecessary age fight somewhere else.

[adi]

Most certainly not.
Get practical when travelling
Buying a ticket at the counter IS practical
Specially in places where neither electricity/phone nor sit-down toilets are an everyday occurrence.

Note: nothing passive on my part in the above, stated a fact.
Too improve your Sunday watch an uplifting video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Zg2S2-h ... bmlhbHM%3D

More wisdom of the Ancient:
" They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else."
(Aristotle)

[leonh]

I have recently (in January 2024) traveled from Ulanbaatar to Zamin-Üüd. Trains seem to fill up days in advance, presumably because the train is so incredibly cheap (less than US$15 IIRC). I was able to get a single ticket for the same day still for reasons I don't quite understand, by pleading with the staff and waiting for the system to free up tickets that were somehow stuck in booking-limbo.

However, when I was there, the train to Erlian was not fully booked, presumably because it is around four times as expensive. So you might have more luck booking that at the counter. However, this train only leaves twice a week.

So, I'm also interested in how to access the Mongolian train company website from abroad since I want to travel the route in reverse in June.

Unfortunately, this damn forum doesn't allow me to upload an image of the train schedule that I found on Facebook. Further, I didn't take a photo of the departures & price board in the ticket office in Ulanbaatar, but I remember that the Erlian - Ulanbaatar train was something around 250k MNT.

Also adi, when I went through Mongolia, I had zero issues with electricity and also encountered many sitdown toilets. Yes, Mongolia is not a very rich country and many people live very different lifestyles, but that doesn't make them any less capable to use the internet. FWIW, I also detected a passive-aggressive tone in your writing and I think linking to a video titled "Boomer Triggers Gen-Z Snowflakes" in a thread about railways in Mongolia doesn't really help your case.

[MrIdK]

https://eticket.ubtz.mn/ works only with a Mongolian VPN (but a real one like Urban VPN Premium and not virtual ones like Nord VPN for Mongolia).
Alternatively, you can buy tickets for all Mongolian trains including international ones on https://www.tapatrip.com/en/trains with a booking fee.