You can buy train tickets through Uzbek Railways, see our Uzbekistan train page for details. This means it is not necessary to use our services, it is cheaper to use Uzbek Railways. Only if you have technical issues with the Uzbek Railways website we recommend you to use our ticket buying service.
If you want to buy an Uzbek train ticket in advance, we can help you. You might want to do this to avoid long queues at the train station, or to make sure your train is not booked out in advance. You cannot print the tickets at home yet, but they can be delivered at your hotel in one of the major cities in Uzbekistan.
Understand that this is a VERY expensive service: you will pay triple or quadruple the price for a train ticket because of the many hoops the operator in Uzbekistan needs to jump through to get the tickets. If you can buy it yourself somehow (online or in-person), this is much to be preferred: cheaper and quicker!
The trains
- 1. Sharq: fast train between Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara
- 2. Registan: fast train between Tashkent – Samarkand
- 3. Afrosiyob: fast train between Tashkent – Samarkand
- 4. Night trains: run between Tashkent – Bukhara, Tashkent – Urgench, Samarkand – Tashkent, Bukhara – Samarkand
- 5. Uzbekistan train: is a brand new train operating from Tashkent to Ferghana valley (as of 27.08.16) stopping at Kokand – Margilan – Andijan
- 6. Tashkent – Almaty – Tashkent: a brand new speed train available 4 times a week.
- 7. Nukus – Almaty – Nukus: slow but cheap long distance train.
- 8. There are no trains between Bukhara – Khiva.
Important notes before requesting a ticket:
1. Travel agent needs at least 3 days to buy and deliver your ticket in Uzbekistan.
2. Use the booking form only once you have decided to purchase a train ticket. There is a person behind the booking form, who needs to call to train station and check available seats for each request.
3. If you just need to know Train schedules and prices please see lists below.
If you need to know more about the experience of riding a train in Uzbekistan, see the main Uzbekistan train page.
If you would prefer to take a flight inside Uzbekistan, see domestic flights inside Uzbekistan.
All prices include booking fees and taxes.
Note: The time schedule is subject to change without prior notice. Prices vary and need to be checked on a daily basis. Fares may change due to availability and the time of booking.
We used CARAVANISTAN for our trip in March. Appreciate their professional services!
My wife and I live in Uzbekistan. She is currently a fellow at a local University. I’d just like to say that while things are considerably less expensive here than in the “west”, most purchases require quite a bit of “inconvenience: language barriers, long wait times, visits to multiple bureaus, confusing time charts, inconsistent logistics (delays, random cancellations, Holidays), and more. While the caravanistan prices are higher than market rate, they provide a service that is hard to quantify AND they are entirely transparent. Sometimes it’s just nice to have all of the information and not have to worry about these things. Thanks caravanistan! Note- it took me atleast 30 min to exchange $100 USD into Euros at the local bank here. There was paperwork, inspection/copying of my passport, friendly conversation, a refusal of a bill because of a blemish, and, finally, I got my money. It’s a different world here.
Regarding the prices being charged by Carvanistan’s agents in Uzbekistan to book trains.
I have found the agency very honest.
In the first instance when I wished to engaged their services to provide an LOI they advised me that I i was prepared to wait for two weeks I could use the new online visa system. I did and so they missed out on a fee from me.
In the second instance Aliya advised me to try the new e-ticket service that Uzbek railways was just introducing. I did and was able to obtain a ticket. Once again they missed on a fee from me.
Therefore I would accept the reasons given by Aliya for why their price is higher.
John
Hello John,
Thank you for your comment! Indeed being honest and helping clients even if it doesn`t earn us anything is what we value the most at Caravanistan. So do our partners.
60 usd kupe class, from almaty to tashkent…..?
My friends, Is excessive, I bought a ticket from almaty to tashkent, and it cost me about 30 euros, about 28 dollars …….. and also you can buy online ……. I think its margin Of benefit is an excess, that pay deceptive ……. It is one thing to have a margin of 20, 30 or 40%, and another very different from 200 or even 300 …… you live In a fantasy world ……. clear that there will always be people who accept such abuse ……
First of all we don`t abuse anyone. You can visit our train article where we mention that you can buy Kazakh train tickets online.
Secondly, I logged into Epay.railways.kz and the price for a Fast train Talgo is 12 116 tenge which is 38 USD for this Saturday, but the price can change anytime. So the agency found a medium price which will allow keeping one fare throughout the year.
Besides an average train price, the agency in Tashkent has additional service fees which include: salary, taxes, delivery of paper tickets by taxi to the customer. This service is designed for people who prefer comfortable & hassle-free service of the tourist agency.
I agree with Rachel. Other online booking services charge substantially less markup , to be honest I didn’t shop around a lot because I trusted Caravanistan’s branding of itself as offering the best deals.
It appears I was charged $40 for a $12 ticket. Other online booking services charge $30. Of course you need to make a living but I think your site loses credibility.
Hi Chris,
you are right, it is not a good deal. I still need to offer this service as long as people cannot book online yet, but as soon as people will be able to, I can finish this up. In any case, I will add that we are very expensive on the page.
We used Caravanistan to purchase train tickets from Bukhara to Samarkand, Samarkand to Tashkent, and then Tashkent to Bukhara. Their service was great! They worked with our hotel so that when we arrived in Bukhara, all three of our train tickets were waiting for us. Great customer service!
We travelled on the Afrosiab 3 times last month, and the help provided by Caravanistan and their agent in purchasing the rail tickets was invaluable. Ordering was straight forward, the tickets were brought to our hotel in Tashkent by Aliya, she answered all our questions and was extremely helpful. The price seemed very fair, and really good value when one considers the speed and convenience of crossing Uzbekistan in real comfort, at high speed and on time. The proportionately small administrative charges made by the agents are really worth it – they have the hassle of jostling and bargaining for the tickets, overcoming the considerable local bureaucracy, arranging delivery and providing support, and I thoroughly recommend using their service. The Afrosiab experience was exceptional and a credit to the country.
It was great booking the tickets through your website.
The travel office responded to emails and duly turned up with the tickets at the hotel at the appointed time.
Lovely not having to organise tickets on arrival and allowed for better planning on a short stay.
The train booking service was very helpful.
Thanks,
I loved my trip to Uzbekistan – thanks for your service, the train ticket was waiting for me at the reception and the journey was fabulous :)
I bought tickets from Tashkent to Samarkand. Maybe tickets are more expensive than buying it in the train station, but with no doubt they worth it. They gave me the tickets in front of the train station, just before the train was leaving. Without Caravanistan help I wouldn’t be able to travel to Samarkand the same day I arrived in Tashkent.
Dear Saule and Steven,
The train ticket bookings were excellent. They were delivered to my B&B in Tashkent exactly as agreed, and were all correct. All my train travel worked very smoothly. Only one small point – it might be worth pointing out to people that changes to tickets can only be made at Tashkent, or at the station of departure. Otherwise, it wall all good – thank you
Johnny
Excellent service, but you pay for it: if you book your train ticket via Shahina Biznes Travel, you’ll pay between 20 % and 240 % (!) extra for it. For example:
– Tashkent – Samarkand (1st class) : local ticket price = UZS 55 668; Shahina Biznes Travel price = USD 30 (= UZS 86 100 at official exchange rate or UZS 189 000 at black market rate, i.e. the real exchange rate, because literally everyone exchanges dollars at this rate, even travel agencies and hotels)
– Samarkand – Urgench (coupé): local ticket price = UZS 95 598; Shahina Biznes Travel price = USD 40 (= UZS 114 800 at official rate or UZS 252 000 at real rate)
– Bukhara – Tashkent (1st class): local ticket price = UZS 78 180; Shahina Biznes Travel price = USD 40 (+ 47 % at official rate or + 222 % at real rate).
So if you want to avoid these largely exagerated extra charges, ask your hotel to book the tickets for you for a more reasonable extra fee or even better: go to the Tashkent Railway Station ticket office yourself on the first day of your trip to Uzbekistan and pay for the tickets in UZS and without any extra charges. Even in high season, only the Afrosyob high speed train fills up quickly (and needs to be booked well in advance); the other trains – like the Sharq – can be booked a couple of days beforehand.
Totally agree here, wish we could do it cheaper. Maybe one day, online sales will be allowed. For now, block-booking of the train by government officials and the huge administration costs attached to doing anything in Uzbekistan means this is the best price we can offer.
On my trips, I hardly saw any government officials in the trains. How does the supposed block-booking affect the fixed price anyway?
Also, the ‘local ticket’ prices I mentioned were the prices printed on my very tickets, inclusive of all taxes. And I suppose the price on the ticket is also the price which the local Shahina Biznes Travel representative (Ms Japarova) pays when she picks up the tickets at the Tashkent railway station ticket office before she delivers them at the guest’s accommodation in Tashkent. I understand that the representative’s salary has to be paid for and that the travel agency needs to make a profit, but the difference between the actual ticket price and the price paid by a customer who books the ticket through a travel agency is just too big.
Honestly, I was quite shocked to find out that I had paid 3.4 times the price of the ticket bought locally by the fellow tourist sitting next to me on my first trip.
Yes, we do charge fees for our services. We provide quick and easy service, but noone knows (even Steven and Saule) what is behind the scene. Let me tell you now.
Buying train tickets by travel agent is not very easy and smooth process, we have to arrange necessary documents, go to the railway Station 2 and sometimes 3 times before we can buy tickets (by taxi) – finding needed people to sign documents, waiting in long queues, long security checks when we go to the railway station administration.
And now we can buy tickets! But sometimes we hear from the lady in the window – “no available tickets” or “only near the toilet left”. We start to solve the problem – to get unavailable tickets, to get better seats etc. Bribes! That’s what we use.
We finally bought the tickets. Now we should deliver them, sometimes to a hotel in Tashkent (by taxi again) which is perfect as we are located here, sometimes – to a hotel in Samarkand/Bukhara/Khiva/Nukus. We don’t have staff there, we use taxis and pay them. And pay to people in those cities, to deliver tickets to exact hotel (taxi don’t deliver tickets directly to the hotel).
Yes, the difference between real ticket price and our fee is big. But when we count our real profit after all our expenses – it’s not so much. And people still can buy tickets independently, on the spot OR book a smooth and painless service and pay for it. All the pain will be ours.
It was great!- absolutely terrific service by carvanistan.
Sorry – I left a reply in hurry before. If you want hassle free travel, go with Carvanistan – especially for the train and LOI, they do provide exceptional service. They have very caring staff that will go out of their way to make sure everything goes smoothly and advice you along the way. I spent six days in Uzbekistan and it was absolute delight. I would love to visit again and will definitely recommend anyone who wants to visit Central Asia to use their services.
thx
a
A very fast and efficient service with Ms Aliya Japarova personally delivering my tickets to my hotel and offering me lots of helpful advuce. I would definitely recommend ordering tickets with this company.
The service was very efficient. Very good communication and Ms Japarova was really helpful. I would recommend it.
Very good service, great communication, easy PayPal paying. Tickets were delivered to my hotel in Tashkent. Highly recommended!
Good service. thank you!
Having filled in the on line form I got a very quick response, the whole process was extremely efficient, friendly and transparent. I thought the price was extremely fair, too, considering that it might save us a lot of running around and grief due to lack of language skills. Within 48h the tickets were bought and will be delivered to our hotel in Tashkent. Ms Aliya Japarova was particularly friendly and helpful. Highly recommended.
Quick and efficient service. E-mails answered rapidly; ticket delivered to my hotel shortly after I arrived.
Very good service, quick and safe, no problems. Thank you very much!
Buying train tickets between Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent was very straightforward and the agent was very helpful. Tickets were delivered to my hotel in Bukhara to wait my arrival, precisely as promised. I even got a free upgrade to business class on the remarkable Samarkand to Tashkent Afrosiyob train.
Booked train tickets in Uzbekistan with ease. Recommend