Buying train tickets in Uzbekistan

[pikdonker]

The uzbek railways ticketing website seems to work rather well when it's up. It is not at the moment, but was up for days a couple of weeks ago when I was planning a rail journey. I made an account and everything!

What I did not do was actually buy a ticket, because I'll be in Uzbekistan in September, so tickets are not available yet. In the mean time this has left me wondering if it is possible to buy a ticket through their website with a Western credit card. The page on trains in Uzbekistan here says it's not, but I don't know how current that info is.. Anybody here tried their luck recently?

I know there are other ways to get a Uzbek train ticket online, but going through Uzbek Railways is much cheaper than going through agencies or RZD..

[steven]

I would love for someone to try it out and succeed - so far no reports yet.

[pikdonker]

Just tried this again out of curiosity, but the only way you can pay is through click.uz, which only seems to accept Uzbek cards or payment through an Uzbek phonenumber.. So I guess I will have to go through an agency or local help.. Ah well.. I'll manage..

[Belteral]

So Uzbekistan Railways just announced that they are testing international payments by Visa.
Here is an extract of the press release:

Visa: New opportunities for payment transactions
07/31/2018
In order to develop the tourism industry and providing additional services for passengers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, JSC “O'zbekiston temir yo'llari” jointly with JSICB "Ipak Yuli" starts to work with a project for accepting payments for electronic travel documents in foreign currency through the international payment system of "Visa" from 01.08.2018 in a test mode.

I just tried to book a train ticket on their website and, sure enough, at the end of the booking process there was an option "Pay with Visa".
It did not work, there is likely a gateway connection problem between the railways and the bank website.
I figure it's going to be the same kind of deal as with the e-visa website i.e. it won't work until it starts working.
I will definitely try again soon though, and update this if I have any more luck.

[pikdonker]

Nice! About three weeks too late for me though..

[Belteral]

I am thrilled to report that IT WORKS !
I was just able to book a Tashkent to Samarkand e-ticket on the website of Uzbekistan railways with my French Visa card.
After filling the booking form and clicking "Pay with Visa", first the railways website seemed to reload the booking platform from the first step and I wasn't very hopeful, then after a few seconds I was redirected to the payment page.
Rather spartan (see caption below) and I was a bit put off by the row of interrogation points.
Payment caption
However it does have a valid certificate.
After entering my cards details and going through 3d secure procedure I was sent back to my account page on the railways website, and there was my e-ticket ready to be downloaded!
I did not receive any confirmation e-mail from Uzbekistan railways, the only way to retrieve the ticket is through their website.
On this succesful attempt I have been using Chrome on PC, previously I tried on Firefox and Edge and it did not work.

[zoomingout]

It works for me too.
You need VISA bank card, chrome without adblock on. It doesn't ask for E-VISA documents, only passport nr.
I'm so happy to get tickets directly from the uzbek railways and not to wait for agencies to cut me off. I think personally there is more cheaper, than on-line from Europe (not only because of the black market SOM ratings), but I don't have much time to chase/wait for available tickets there.
This is not an E-ticket, we must go to the first office at a train station to print the tickets.
I'm going to Uzbekistan this september and I can't wait it.

[Belteral]

This is not an E-ticket, we must go to the first office at a train station to print the tickets.

Actually it depends on the train. For those that shows ЭР next to the train info it is e-tickets.
Same thing ason RZD website.
Most Afrosiyob seem to have e-ticketing.
For e-tickets you have to "electronically register" which can be done at any time on your account page on Uzbek railways website.
For non e-tickets (I haven't experienced those yet) I understand that you get a voucher or a ticket number that you can then use to retrieve your actual ticket at a station in Uzbekistan.

[steven]

Via e-mail:

Just an update, the online system is running but difficult to use. After paying, they send you a document after a few minutes (don’t close your browser!) that you will need to bring out and bring to the station. The site is in English but many of the options and text is in Russian still.

[alexandria]

We just succeeded to buy ticket online.
I couldn't input Bukhara for search station, so did copy&paste "БУХАРА" and worked.
Nothing difficult for the payment, then downloaded e-ticket for our fast train from "ticket forms" right after payment.