Taking a train to a local or international destination is incredibly straightforward. Before I travelled, I did some research online and the only definitive information that I could find made it seem that booking online would quite possibly be unsuccessful.
However, being someone that is always up for a challenge I thought I’d give it a go. We flew in to Baku and wanted to visited Sheki in the north west of the country. After that we would return to Baku before travelling to Tbilisi on the overnight train.
You can find instructions on how to complete the whole process below and how to collect your tickets. They can be booked up to 10 days in advance and you need to go to the train station to collect them at least one hour prior to departure.
The website for ticket booking is here: https://ticket.ady.az/en/tickets. You don’t even need to register as they will send the ticket confirmation to your email.
You’ll begin by entering your Departure point and destination. If you are travelling to or from Baku, the station you need is Baku-Pass. If you are travelling to Tbilisi, you need to choose Tbilisi-Pass as that is Tbilisi central station.
Once that’s done, add your departure date and the number of people travelling. And don’t forget to tick the box that says you agree “with RULES”.
On the next page, you will choose what compartment to sleep in. If you are travelling by overnight train (for e.g. to Tbilisi) you can choose between the following carriages:
PL – Open cabin, no compartments just seats
PRICE 23.96 AZN per person
KP – Kupe (4 berth)
PRICE 35.27 AZN per person
SV – Spalny Vagon (2 berth)
PRICE 59.99 AZN per person
When you have chosen the compartment you want to travel in you can navigate to the next page where you enter your personal details. Do enter these accurately as your ID will be checked when getting on the train for both domestic and international trips.
Once that’s done, you can choose which beds you want. Simply click on the bed you want to book, and then click on the name of the traveller that you want to assign that bed to. Clicking next will bring you to the online payment page.
Make sure you have your card ready at this point as you’ll have the grand total of three minutes to enter your card number and the other information required. They accept MasterCard, Visa and Maestro.
And there you go! The online booking part is done now. Just don’t forget to send the reservation confirmation to your email address.
Next step will be going to collect your tickets. You need to collect these at least one hour in advance of your train’s departure time. The train station is at 28 May which is a common bus and metro stop and is right here: https://goo.gl/maps/4YRSvRWHce22.
When you go in, follow the signs for the ticket desks, also marked as “kassalar”. It’s on the lower of the two floors. If you enter the station from the street side, it should be on the same floor. If you enter from the side the train platforms are on, you will need to go down the escalator. When you get to the ticket desks, there is a machine where you take your ticket to join the queue. On the screen, tap “online bilety” and it will give you a number. Then you simply wait until your number is called.
At the desk, hand over your reservation. This worked both as a printed reservation and also simply showing them the reservation on my phone. You may also be asked to show your ID that you entered at the time of booking, so be sure to bring that along too.
You’ll be given your tickets and now all you have to do is catch the train!
Sam and Sheena Cycle 