Trains in Ukraine- what are they like?

You know you can fly in about an hour for about $100? In the spring we will fly from Ivano-Frankivsk (a few hours south of Lviv) to Kiev for under $150.

We were in Ukraine in May and traveled by train from Kyiv to Lviv and then again from Lviv to Chop.

• Tickets were very easy to obtain online. The Ukrainian Railways site lets you select your specific train seat. When you order online you get a PDF document emailed to you. Just print this out and they can scan it. They will check your passport at the same time. The tickets are also very cheap by American standards.
• Because of the long distances in Ukraine, the trains all have sleeper cars. On our trains, the best car available was a second class 4-person sleeper. Some of the trains do a have a 1st class two-person sleeper. The sleepers are mixed gender, so you don't know who you'll wind up with in your car. On our first train, we were grouped with a middle-aged Ukrainian woman. On our second we were with a couple young Ukrainian men. Overall, it is was quite safe, but you can talk to the car attendant and request to swap if, for example, you are a single female traveler and find yourself in a sleeper with three men. However, all of this is moot if you are going to travel during the day.
• English is not widely spoken in Ukraine. The ones most likely to speak English are 20-something professional types. If you need to find someone who speaks English, the younger crowd is your best bet.
• The toilets vary from train to train. There were western style toilets on our trains. One of our trains had a full-flush system but the other was a simple drop toilet. If you are on a train with the latter, the toilet will be off limits just before arriving to a station until just after leaving the station. There should be a chart posted showing the times that the toilet is not available. The bathrooms themselves were not very clean. And most importantly, bring your own toilet paper.

Hope this helps.

I took the train from Lyiv to Kiev about 5-6 years ago and we had all 4 sleepers in the compartment since we were a family. On the sleeper train, clean sheets will be provided and also pillow if my memory is correct. Also, there is normally a samovar with hot water in every wagon - for tea I presume. We made it a point to stock up on snacks/drinks/beer etc. before boarding the train.

The area under the bottom bunks was enclosed and was used to store luggage. This way no one could get to your luggage when you are sleeping.

Lastly, the trains get going at a fairly good speed but since the rails are not welded like in some western countries, there is a lot of rattling and swaying - my wife and I found it extremely hard to sleep while the kids didn't have any issues.