How far in advance do you need to return train tickets? Refund of Russian Railways tickets purchased at the box office. How to return a ticket after the train departs

However, one cannot help but notice that although this method is very convenient, for many buyers it still remains not entirely clear.

Quite often, travelers planning a trip by rail are afraid to buy such a ticket or do not know how to use it correctly.

Especially many questions arise if it is necessary to return a purchased document. What are the rules for returning an electronic Russian Railways ticket?

In this article we will try to answer all these questions and explain in detail how this type of travel is usually carried out.

Fundamental Rules

First of all, let's denote a number of mandatory rules.

You can return such a travel document at the ticket office of any train station in our country.

To accomplish this, you must show the cashier the document the information about which was entered during purchase, as well as a personal number that is assigned to each electronic coupon.

You can easily find this number it is indicated in the ticket field and consists of 14 digits.

In the usual standard manner, you can carry out the procedure if your train does not have online registration, or if you have not yet completed it.

It is also possible to return Russian Railways travel documents purchased via the Internet (as well as on the website of Tutu and others) according to the usual scheme, if you have completed electronic registration, but there are more than sixty minutes left before the departure of the train.

If, when purchasing, you used a card to pay, the funds will be returned to this card within seven to thirty calendar days.

If you resorted to other payment methods(for example, through electronic money systems), you can receive the amount for the returned document in cash at the ticket office of any station.

All these rules apply to any train tickets for trains traveling through the territory of our country (for example, the Sapsan train).

Terms and Conditions

The ability to return an unnecessary electronic coupon to the cashier, as well as the amount you can get back, Depends on the timing of the procedure.

As a rule, the cost of any railway pass is formed from two components - the price of the actual transportation and the so-called cost of a “reserved seat” (that is, maintaining a separate seat for you on the train).

If you return earlier than eight hours before the train departure, you have the right to receive its full cost minus small commission fees.

If you come to the ticket office when there are 2 to 8 hours left before departure, has the right to claim the full amount of transportation and half the cost of a reserved seat.

If there are less than 2 hours left before departure, you can only return the fare amount, without the amount you paid for the reserved seat.

Making a claim

In most cases, everything happens as usual and does not require mandatory written documentation.

However, in some situations passengers have to return documents to the ticket office in a claim procedure.

This applies to cases where the traveler has already completed the electronic registration procedure and there is less than one hour left before the train departs.

If you find yourself in this situation, you will have to make a standard written claim to get the money back. To do this, contact the special returns office, which is located at most major train stations.

If you don’t find such a cash desk, you can go to any other window. A station employee will help you correctly file a claim.

Don't forget that you will need a passport(or another document whose details were indicated upon purchase) and a fourteen-digit individual ticket number.

Purchasing from a third party resource

The above apply to the return of any e-tickets, regardless of where they were purchased - on the official website of Russian Railways or on another third-party website that acts as an intermediary.

In any case, you have the right to get your money back. However, you may lose part of the amount paid.

Any intermediary company takes money not only for the ticket itself, but also a small commission for its services. You will lose this symbolic amount.

Otherwise, the rules are absolutely the same as for travel documents purchased on the official website of Russian Railways.

Contact the cashier

As we already mentioned, You can carry out the procedure at the ticket office of any station, having your passport and electronic coupon number with you. We advise you to do this as early as possible, because this directly determines the amount you will receive back.

For Russian Railways, returns are a standard procedure that its employees encounter every day.

If anything is unclear, don't worry: the cashier at the return desk will tell you how to pay for an unused document. The entire procedure usually takes only a few minutes.

In some cases, you can return it without even visiting such a cash desk. How to proceed in this case?

If you purchased a travel pass on the website of an intermediary agency, you will most likely be able to return the money you spent online to your bank card.

To find out whether such a service is available, carefully read the rules of operation of the intermediary company or contact its consultants by phone or online mail.

Is it possible not to lose money?

Unfortunately, any return is usually associated with some monetary loss. They will be minimal if you contact us no later than 8 hours before the train departs.

The later you come to the cashier, the more money you will lose.

In addition, regardless of the return time, in any case, you will have to lose the insurance part of the cost, which is necessarily included in its price.

In short, small financial losses are inevitable, but you have the power to reduce them to a minimum.

Steps to take when returning abroad

All the rules listed above apply, first of all, to passengers traveling across Russian territory. For those traveling outside our country, there are several separate rules.

You can issue a return at a special ticket office at the station in the country where you are.

To do this, you must have your passport and electronic coupon number with you. The station employee will provide you with a return form that you will need to fill out.

You will need to contact the Russian Railways ticket office with the completed form upon your return to Russia. This must be done within 6 months from the date of departure of the train.

If you want to return an electronic travel document for a train heading to Belarus, Latvia or Ukraine, this cannot be done if electronic registration has already been completed and there is less than an hour left before the train departs.

Contrary to popular belief, You can return a travel pass purchased online, and doing this is no more difficult than passing a regular paper test.

Therefore, you should not be afraid of remote purchasing; standard requirements apply when returning. If you approach the procedure correctly, it will not cause any problems or difficulties.

We hope that the step-by-step instructions contained in this article will be useful to you and will clarify many questions.

We often plan our vacation, but sometimes it happens that we have carefully planned everything, bought tickets, but fail to go. How to return money for a purchased electronic train ticket in different situations, read about the terms of refund in this material.

How to return money for a purchased train ticket online?

With the development of technology, life has become much easier. You can buy everything without leaving your home, via the Internet. In order to go on a trip, there is no need to stand in line at the Russian Railways ticket office; you can purchase a travel document online.
If for some reason you decide to return a ticket purchased online, follow the instructions:

• Go to the Russian Railways website, if you are not registered, register, then click on the “Login” button and enter your password and username;
• Your last name should appear at the top, click on it or on “My orders”;
• Find the ticket you want to check in, then click the "Request Status" button. “Update status” will immediately appear, then “Proceed with a return”;
• Confirm your wish by pressing the button. After this, you will see the amount of money that is subject to refund. Not the full amount will be reimbursed;
• Click on “Submit”. Immediately after this procedure, the status will be updated.

Please note that the Russian Railways company has a rule: If a train ticket was purchased in cash, cash is returned; in case of non-cash payment, the money will be returned to the card.

Is it possible to get a refund for a train ticket if I am late?

If you miss your train, don't despair. You can hand over your travel document, receive money and choose another type of transport for your trip. You can return your travel document if no more than three hours have passed since you were late. You can also change it and travel on the same day by another train or reschedule your trip. Only 80% of the amount will be returned.

Is it possible to get a refund if I lost my ticket?

If you have lost your travel document, you should consider some nuances:

• It can be restored if it was not passed;
• You cannot return a lost travel document if it is a long-distance train. For example, from Moscow to Vladivostok is possible, but from Grodno to Moscow is not.

You can get what you lost in the following way:

• Find the station duty officer and inform him about the loss;
• Write a statement;
• Show your ID;
• Go to the cashier for a replacement.

How to cancel a Russian Railways e-ticket and get your money back?

To return, go to the Russian Railways ticket office with your passport or birth certificate if minors are traveling with you. Show the cashier your boarding pass. If we are talking about returning a travel document for a train of domestic and international traffic in the CIS countries:

• One day before departure, the cost of the travel document and reserved seat will be reimbursed;
• Less than a day before departure - the price of the ticket and half the cost of a reserved seat;
• Less than six hours before departure - money is returned, but without a reserved seat;
• There is an hour left before departure - nothing will be returned

If the purchase was not made through the official website of Russian Railways, a commission for the services of a third-party supplier will also be charged.

It is written about how to change an electronic train ticket purchased on the Russian Railways website.

Is it possible to get a refund for an unused train ticket?

If you simply change your mind about going, you can get your money back. If you made a purchase online, through the Russian Railways website, you can return the money through your personal account. Find in the order archive the travel document that you do not intend to use, request the status, update it and issue a return. You can also print an electronic document on a printer.

If you bought a ticket at the station, all actions for a refund must be carried out through the cashier. It does not take a lot of time.

Refund of money for Russian Railways tickets to the card - terms

The period and method of returning money () for returned travel documents depends on how the purchase was paid for. If you made a purchase using a bank card, the money will be returned to the card within 30 business days.

If the purchase was made in mobile phone stores or through terminals, then you should take into account the method of delivery. When returning via the Internet, you can receive money through the CONTACT money transfer system; the money spent must be returned within ten days (not counting weekends); if at the station ticket office, the return will be issued within a few minutes.

To an electronic wallet - ten days; if a non-cash payment was made, the money will be returned to the current account the next day after the application is received.

If for some reason a planned trip by rail has to be cancelled, the passenger has the right to return the pre-purchased ticket and compensate for the money spent in whole or in part.

The return of Russian Railways tickets is carried out according to certain rules, and the final result depends on the method of their purchase and on the time that remains before the departure of the train. In order to receive the fullest possible reimbursement for the cost of purchasing a ticket, you must follow certain rules.

You can return Russian Railways tickets in the same way they were purchased.

The easiest way is to return a travel document purchased using an electronic service. According to Order No. 473 of the Ministry of Transport, the passenger has the right to return the ticket in the same way in which it was purchased.

To do this, you can go to your personal account on the website where the ticket was purchased, after which you need to issue a refusal. In this case, the money for the electronic ticket is sent to the bank card or electronic wallet of the failed passenger.

Another way to get to the order page is to follow the link that will be in the letter you received when purchasing a ticket. As soon as you refuse the purchase, a letter confirming the refusal will be sent to your email inbox, in addition, an SMS message about the refund will be sent to your phone. This way you can refuse one or several travel cards.

You can cancel your e-ticket directly at the ticket office at the train station. In this case, if the travel document was paid for by card, the money will be returned back to the bank card, and if the passenger paid at the terminal, he will be able to receive the paid amount in cash. To process a return, you will need to present any other form of identification, as well as provide a 14-digit purchase code.

However, you can cancel the purchase of a ticket no later than an hour before the train departs, that is, before the electronic ticket is registered. If the train is already on its way, the passenger has the right to go to the ticket office at the station and cancel the ticket through a claim procedure. If more than 12 hours have passed since the train left the passenger boarding station, it will no longer be possible to get a refund for the ticket.

In all of these cases, service fees and various commissions will not be refunded, so the passenger will in any case receive less money than was paid.

About the advantages and disadvantages of an electronic train ticket - in the video:

How to return a ticket on a blank form?

When returning a ticket, all money is not refunded

If the ticket was issued on a form, the passenger can use the returns office or go to the long-distance ticket office at the station. To do this, you will need to present the document with which you received your travel document. In this case, the refund of the paid amount is carried out according to the following rules:

1. If the travel document was handed over to the ticket office no later than 8 hours before the train departs from the first station, then the passenger will be compensated for both the cost of the ticket and the cost of the reserved seat in the amount of 100%. The price of a reserved seat is indicated on the ticket - this is the amount for a seat in a railway carriage.
2. If the ticket is canceled no later than 2 hours before the train departs, the fare will be fully compensated, but only half the cost of the reserved seat will be paid.
3. If the ticket is returned later than 2 hours from the moment of departure, then the passenger is compensated only for the cost of travel, but not for the cost of a reserved seat.

Such rules apply only to trains traveling through Russian territory. If the ticket was purchased for a trip to the CIS countries, as well as to the Baltic countries or Abkhazia, then the refund time frame will be slightly different. It will be possible to fully reimburse the fare only one day before the train departure (at least 24 hours). 6 hours before departure you will be able to receive the full ticket price and half the price of a reserved seat.

If you apply for a refund within the first 3 hours after the train departs, you can compensate for the cost of travel, but the price of the reserved seat will not be refunded. At a later date, you can compensate for the cost of travel only through a claim procedure; the passenger must confirm the presence of valid reasons.

If the train was supposed to be sent to foreign countries, then you can reimburse the full fare 6 hours before the train departs. Later, the money will not be returned at all, in addition, a refund of the amount spent on the purchase is possible only on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Commission fees and other additional payments

Refunds will be credited to your account within 7 to 30 days.

The rules of Russian Railways indicate that for any return, a so-called complaint fee will be deducted from the failed passenger; its value is 185 rubles. It is deducted when returning tickets at the ticket office at the station, so the passenger is given in hand or transferred to the card a smaller amount than was spent on the purchase.

If the ticket was purchased through one of the electronic services via the Internet, they have the right not to return the so-called service or commission fees. Such as pre-booking, SMS support, email notification, etc. require compensation, so the service reserves the right not to compensate for the cost of additional services.

The amount may vary depending on the site's policy, but in any case, the passenger must receive notification of the amount of the service fee and all fees charged. There is one more important rule: if the client paid for the ticket with a card, the money cannot be given in person upon return. This is a precaution used to protect against .

The period for returning money to the card can be 7-30 days from the moment the service is notified of the order cancellation.

If the client paid not through a card, but through electronic payment services such as Yandex.Money, then the minimum refund period is 10 days. According to the rules of the services, it can reach 60 calendar days.

Thus, it is possible to return the money spent on Russian Railways tickets, but the passenger will have to wait a considerable period of time before he can return the money spent. The sooner he decides to cancel the trip, the greater the chance of returning almost the full cost of the ticket and avoiding additional expenses.

Expert lawyer's opinion:

This procedure has existed at all times. Fundamentally, it has not changed for many years. The rule has always been that the later the decision to cancel a trip is made, the greater the financial losses. Only the methods of mutual settlements have changed.

It is important when planning a trip, carrying out various actions in this direction, to save all documents, links on the Internet, SMS messages, etc. It can be useful. If suddenly a situation arises that the train left without you, in the literal sense, you should not postpone attempts to return money for an unused ticket. Action must be taken immediately.

Even the most experienced travelers with solid itinerary planning skills sometimes encounter unforeseen circumstances that force them to abandon their upcoming trip. In such cases, one of the main problems becomes the return of unused travel documents. Russian Railways offers several options for returning electronic tickets. We will tell you how to return an electronic train ticket purchased on the Russian Railways website, and in what time frame this can be done. This article will also help you figure out whether it is possible to return an electronic ticket for a Russian Railways train if you are late and whether it is possible to exchange your boarding pass.

How to return an electronic ticket purchased on the Russian Railways website

There are two ways to return tickets purchased on the Russian Railways website:

• through the Internet;
• when visiting the cashier in person.

Each method has its limitations. Canceling an order online is most convenient if you have learned in advance that your upcoming trip is impossible. If circumstances forced you to cancel your trip at the very last moment, you will most likely have to contact the ticket office directly to process a refund.

Let's look at both options in more detail.

Returning an electronic ticket for a Russian Railways train via the Internet

The easiest and fastest way to cancel an order is to return Russian Railways electronic tickets on the website. However, it imposes certain restrictions related to the registration method and train departure time.

We list the basic rules for returning online:

• the main condition is that the control coupon was not registered or passed electronic registration on the website, that is, the travel document was not issued at the ticket office or terminal;
• if you have already completed electronic registration, you can cancel your order no later than an hour before the train departs from the first station of the route;
• If you have not checked in, a refund can be made at any time before the train leaves your station.

The refund conditions for international tickets are slightly different. Unregistered orders are canceled 6 hours or more before the train departs from your station. In the case of tickets that have undergone electronic registration, an additional condition appears: the exchange must be made no less than an hour before the train departs from the very first station indicated in the route.

Note the differences in wording used in different situations. Passengers often confuse the time of departure of the train from the first station of the route and the time of boarding at the intermediate station. We advise you to carefully understand these subtleties in order to have a clear understanding of the ticket return procedure.

If you received travel document forms at a ticket office or a special terminal, or the available order cancellation period has expired, you will not be able to return an electronic ticket for a Russian Railways train via the Internet. In this case, the only option is to cancel the order through the ticket office at the station.

Return your Russian Railways e-ticket online- it's fast and convenient. To cancel an order you need to follow a few simple steps.

Step 1. Log in to the website pass.rzd.ru using your username and password.

Step 3. Next to the route description you will see a “Request Status” link, when clicked, a link to return tickets will appear. Click on it and complete the order cancellation process.

The money will be sent to the bank card from which the purchase was made.

Rules for returning an electronic Russian Railways ticket through the ticket office

In addition to canceling an order via the Internet, a passenger can return a ticket using the services of an operator at the ticket office at a train station or train station. Please note that not all cash desks provide this service. You can always find a complete list of ticket offices on the Russian Railways website.

The possibility of returning money through the ticket office remains even if you are late for the train. At the same time, the regulations for the return of electronic and paper tickets establish a clear deadline for canceling the order: no more than 12 hours from the time of departure of your train. If there is a valid reason (illness confirmed by a doctor, or the occurrence of an accident), supported by relevant documents, this period is increased to 5 days. In both cases, the return is made by drawing up a claim according to the established form.

In addition, if you have already completed electronic registration, and there is less than an hour left before the departure time of the train from the very first station of the route, the claim procedure will also be used for a refund. The claim review process may take up to 1 month. To this period should be added the time for crediting funds to a bank card, which ranges from 7 to 30 days. Thus, it is possible to make a refund if you are late for the train, however, this process cannot be called quick.

Any passenger from the list specified in a specific order can return a ticket by presenting a document confirming his identity. If tickets have not yet been registered, or electronic registration has been performed, it is enough to show the cashier the printed control coupon, or give its 14-digit number. If you received paper tickets after registering at the ticket office or a special Russian Railways terminal, you must return them.

Refunds will be made to the card used to make the purchase.

How much will I receive after returning the tickets?

We have already found out whether it is possible to return an electronic ticket for a Russian Railways train; It's time to talk about the amount that you will receive in your account when you cancel your order. The rules for crediting funds when canceling orders are quite transparent.

When returning a ticket, a fee of 192 rubles 70 kopecks is always charged. This amount is paid for each passenger specified in the order.

The remaining amount is refunded depending on the timing of order cancellation:

• if there are 8 or more hours left before landing at your station, Russian Railways will refund the entire cost of the order;
• if there are no more than 8, but not less than 2 hours left before boarding, a refund of an amount equal to the ticket price and half the cost of a reserved seat is available;
• If there are less than 2 hours left before boarding, only the ticket price without a reserved seat is refunded.

How long does it take for funds to be credited to a bank card?

It must be remembered that funds will be credited to the card significantly later than Russian Railways confirms the return of electronic tickets. The timing of the refund largely depends on the speed of the company’s partner bank.

Russian Railways rules regulate the return period from 7 to 30 days. In practice, the return may occur faster, but we still advise you to plan your budget taking into account the deadlines approved by the carrier’s rules.

Can I just exchange my tickets?

Unfortunately, Russian Railways rules do not provide for the possibility of exchanging any tickets, including electronic ones. Even if you go to the ticket office in person, the exchange procedure will be limited to returning old ones and purchasing new travel documents in accordance with the rules described above. Thus, you will not receive any savings when exchanging your old travel document for a new one.

What else you need to know when canceling an order

It is worth considering that sometimes Russian Railways may establish special cancellation rules for passengers purchasing tickets for certain international and domestic destinations. In addition, return conditions may differ depending on the class of carriage.

You can view the current list of exceptions that apply to order cancellations on the Russian Railways website.

Conclusion

The procedure for returning electronic tickets usually begins to interest passengers only at the moment when this service is truly in demand. Unfortunately, this approach often results in a significant loss of time and money. We encourage you to review our e-ticket return policy in advance to understand your cancellation options should unforeseen circumstances arise that force you to cancel your planned trip.

Video news about simplifying the Russian Railways ticket return procedure:

This was a long time ago, back in the USSR. Once I got lost in the endless underground passages of the Kursk station and reached the right platform only 20 minutes after the ambulance left. I was very worried. However, quite quickly at the ticket office of the same station the ticket was changed for tomorrow, and practically for nothing. I was lucky - in those years it was not easy to buy a ticket to the south, and in the south you had to queue for a return ticket immediately, on the day of arrival. Wow vacation!

Now everything is simpler. It is still worth buying a ticket in advance, but this is no longer such a big problem. The country and the type of economy have changed, but the real life of an ordinary person has remained almost the same. You can still miss the train, get sick, change your plans, or even change your mind about going to Ukraine, which has now become a foreign country. And naturally, I want to return the money for an unused ticket. In this case, our native Russian Railways present their own rules for this return to travelers. They are not as cruel as one might assume, given the monopoly position of Russian Railways in the railway services market.

So, you were not late, but simply decided not to go. And you head to the return office - at large stations they are always there, at simpler stations their function is performed by ordinary ticket offices. Naturally, you need to present the ticket itself and your documents, but even here Russian Railways nobly (I’m not being ironic!) allows not necessarily a failed passenger, but his authorized representative, to go to the ticket office - after all, you could just be sick or on urgent orders from your boss go to Tula to buy a samovar for a presentation? In this case, you only need to issue a power of attorney for your wife or anyone else, and it is not necessary to contact a notary. And where to? Yes, at least to your boss, but this is a separate issue and we will not dwell on it now. It is only important to add that when returning tickets abroad, for example, in Ukraine, you should be given a refund receipt, but you will only receive the money at home.

It would seem, why? Let's return home and do everything there. But no, it’s not worth it - you will return from Yalta only in a couple of weeks, and the amount of money returned will be greater, the sooner you start this procedure. This is perhaps the most important aspect of the problem. For example, if you are returning a Simferopol-Moscow ticket, then it makes sense to take a trolleybus in Yalta to the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea so that you are at the ticket office no later than 8 hours before the train departs - then you will be refunded the ENTIRE cost of the ticket, down to the penny. In this sense, it is more profitable to relax in Sevastopol or Feodosia; the train goes there almost directly to the beach.

However, the so-called return fee will still be deducted (currently it is a little more than 140 rubles). And let's clarify the terminology. What is usually called a ticket is actually a travel document consisting of the actual tickets and the so-called reserved seats. Included in price tickets only costs for locomotive traction (operation of an electric locomotive or steam locomotive) and railway infrastructure (rails, stations, communications, etc.) are included.

And what kind of reserved seat is this, unprecedented in countries of developed capitalism? Why was it invented to sell not just one single travel document - a beautifully decorated ticket, like, for example, in any airline?

So, reserved seat- this is our national treasure, almost a national idea. Once upon a time, under Tsar Gorokh, a ticket was sold plus a card indicating the place (reserved seat, from the German “card for a seat”) on which you had to lie/sit the whole way. A ticket without a reserved seat, that is, without a seat, only allowed you to enter the carriage, and whether you had time to take a seat or not was your problem. Now this practice has been preserved only for electric trains and general carriages of long-distance trains, although in some places they can sell a ticket without a reserved seat (without a seat) and for a reserved seat carriage, in which the “compartment” has no door and there are monstrous side seats. In fact, this practice is some kind of violation of the Consumer Rights Protection Law (CPL), but what disputes could there be with Russian Railways at the Taiga-sorting station?

So now a reserved seat is not a type of carriage (SV, soft, compartment, reserved seat, general, with seats). This is not at all the right/obligation to travel in a reserved seat car, although they often think so, and Russian Railways stubbornly continues to confuse passengers and sells tickets with a reserved seat for carriages of various types.

In fact, a reserved seat refers to the type of fare (Lord, why this verbiage!) and the most interesting thing is that the cost of a reserved seat is devilishly secretly included in the cost of a travel document and you do not always know how much a reserved seat costs. And its cost can range from 30 to 80% of the cost of the travel document, and this is not the limit; in branded trains this percentage is even higher! So think about whether you need to jump on the trolleybus from Yalta to get back, because the ticket on the trolleybus is a normal ticket, with a seat! - getting to Simferopol also costs money, and not so little! Therefore, if you suspect that your travel document will have to be returned, try to find out in advance how much a reserved seat costs.

In principle, in this situation one can also discern some violation of the PPA. Article 32 of this law states:

Article 32. The consumer’s right to refuse to fulfill a contract for the performance of work (rendering services).

The consumer has the right to refuse to fulfill the contract ... for the provision of services Anytime subject to payment to the contractor for the expenses actually incurred by him related to the fulfillment of obligations under this agreement.

Well, okay, the cost of a reserved seat can still be considered as actually incurred expenses of the company or lost benefits (the train travels with one empty seat), but the rest of the cost of the travel document could be returned, even if you return this document in a month. However, if the cost of a reserved seat is such a huge part of the cost of a travel document, then there is no need to bother. Although, if someone, out of principle, decided to take up this dreary matter and went to court, and won it, then they could demand that Russian Railways change their return rules.

So, 8 or more hours before train departure - ENTIRE total cost of the travel document (ticket + reserved seat).

But already 2 - 8 hours before departures will deduct 50% of the cost of the reserved seat.

For less than 2 hours before departure, as well as during the first 12 hours after train departure - minus 100% of the cost of a reserved seat.

Later, it will not be possible to return the money at all, except in special cases. Namely, if you return the travel document within 5 days after departure due to an accident or illness, only the cost of the ticket will be returned without 100% of the reserved seat. And that’s according to the certificate.

A separate question - e-ticket refund, which you ordered online. (In this case, the term “ticket” refers to the same travel document). In other words, you have nothing but an SMS with a personal code, which the railway company should send you after ordering. You can pay for a ticket at special terminals or mobile phone stores, by cards or cash, from a bank account or electronic money. You only need to arrive at the station on the day of departure, present this 14-digit code and your passport and receive a paper ticket (travel document).

If you want to return it, you will first have to do the same operation, that is, go to the station, get a paper ticket and then go with it to the return office. They will return the money in exactly the same way and in the same amount as in the case of a regular travel document with a reserved seat hidden in it, but with one important exception. If you have already registered your e-ticket, you must first cancel it (on the company’s website or directly at the station), but no later than 1 hour before the train departs. It’s not possible later, and you won’t be able to return the ticket either.

The money will be returned in the same way that you used to pay for the electronic ticket (by card, in cash, etc.), but for some reason within 7 to 30 days after the return. It is difficult to say whether such a rule is a direct violation of the PLLA (for example, Article 31), but 30 days is clearly absurd for such a rich organization as JSC Russian Railways. Not all the money will be returned, but they will also be deducted for some commissions and services, although in general, buying tickets on the Internet makes the work of Russian Railways easier.

The rules of Russian Railways are spelled out quite clearly, so that if they are adequately followed, you will receive all the money that is due to you. Therefore, there should be no disputes or refusals on the part of the returning party. However, if you are sure that you strictly comply with the rules approved by them, and a conflict situation still arises (that is, they do not want to give the money), then you should immediately contact the station manager, and in his absence, describe this situation in a statement, indicate the date and time, collect the signatures of a couple of witnesses (the cashier will probably refuse to sign, but there are always people at the station) and send one copy to the Reception Office of Russian Railways at Moscow, Novaya Basmannaya, 2. You can also contact the President of JSC Russian Railways directly on the Internet, Vladimir Yakunin, on his blog http://v-yakunin.livejournal.com. But most likely it won’t come to that, and the money will definitely be returned to you.

And now the conclusions. 1. Don't be late for the train. 2. Return your unused travel document as soon as possible. 3. Find out in advance how much a reserved seat costs. 4. Try not to postpone your vacation plans. 5. Finally, don't get sick, don't stand under an arrow, and don't cross the street at a red light to avoid an accident. And in the south, don’t swim beyond the line of buoys!