Sleeper train - etiquette for bottom bed

Which sleeper train is this?

Often during the day the beds are all folded away and the compartment is converted in to a seating compartment.

Trans Siberian (Novosibirsk <> Yekaterinburg and beyond). Long haul journeys in Kazakhstan (Almaty<>Astana and beyond).

Possibly very different to Western Europe. No - the beds do not fold away in the 4 berths.

So are the beds just for lying on, not for sitting? It would seem that the lower bed you’ve reserved would be for you to lie on, and not be a bench for others.

in the 4 berth Russian cars (Kupé) the berths are converted in to seats during daytime. After all, where would people sit? Also those trains are also used by people only travelling a few stations, so you may be joined by locals just going somewhere. That is one of that attractions of train travel.

That said, Russia is not a place I am currently going to travel to... They should get de-nazified first.

I did an overnight trip to Kyiv in January, and I suspect it's the same type rolling stock you will have.

Air conditioning? Well it was January and the heat was good. But that was mostly because 4 people were in a room that was 6 foot 6 inches long by not more than 7 feet 6 inches wide and maybe 8 feet tall (probably less).

When you arrive the mattress will be rolled up at one end and there will be a pillow and the sheets and pillow case in a plastic bag. The seat has a back rest bolted to the wall, making sitting possible but not overly comfortable. Nothing folds up or converts into a seat. Its a bench and the bunk above is fixed in place. It doesnt fold up either. The asile is maybe 30" wide. You will know these people well before its over.

Bottom bunk can store things under the bench. The bench lifts up to reveal the storage. Upper bunks have a small shelf that is too small so a lot of their things ended up on the floor and in the way. Not their fault. .The train up had a light to tell you when the toilet was empty, the train back, no.

When i got on two ladies were sitting on the opposite bottom bunk. They had just met and sharing the bottom bunk as a shared seat seemed normal. The young lady who had the bunk above me got on next and immediately climbed up and made her bed. In the course of the next few hours she climbed up and down twice for the toilet and for tea. Understand getting to the top is not easy. Not even sure I could ... seriously. So with the third trip down I suggested she stay on my seat/bed till bed time. In return the 3 ladies fed me and went for tea for me several times. Yes 3 ladies and a guy in a cabin.

So it's not about is it yours, it's about you are all in this together. I did walk past other cabins and saw people already sleeping so presumably the other person had to go to the top bunk.

Sleeping on the train was a bit like sleeping on a water matress during an earthquake. Normally I still would have slept well, but I drank to much tea .... thank you ladies.

In the morning we pretty much started moving about the same time. No rule, just a small space and its hard to sleep through people moving around. We rolled up our mattresses and took the sheets to the porters cabin where the dirty linen basket was. Yes, everyone slept fully dressed except shoes.

The border crossing took several hours. In part because of all the passports and in part because they had to change the wheels on the train. Different track dimensions.

Good experience. Return trip was pretty much the same. Would I do it again? Sure, maybe in the early summer.

As, for your trip. I doubt you will find a US or European company that will provide medical, evacuation or trip insurance on a Level 4 country. But I could be wrong. My US insurance agent said there was a chance my US company wouldn't cover any medical condition I returned home with until the pre existing condition waiting period had expired. He also could be wrong.

I have a short video of the cabin I can share if you PM an email address.

Maninseat61 has lots of info on Russian trains but I can’t find pictures to confirm.

My experience with many (20 or more) overnight second class trains in both China and India is this. Both are 6 berth compartments and 3 beds high on each side. For both countries the bottom bed during the day is common sitting space for all the passengers, it’s a stiffly padded platform for sitting and a stiffly padded back for leaning against. At a set time the bottom bed is converted to a bed for one and all 6 passengers go to sleep simultaneously (and wake simultaneously). In China the trains were high enough that the top 2 beds were level all day and could be lain on any time by the 4 people who reserved them. In India with the shorter train height the middle bed has to fold up during the day and only the upper bunk can be lain on during the day.

So guessing there is no chance of lying down during the day if you reserve the bottom bunk.

I googled Russian Sleeping Car and YES!!! This is exactly what I rode in January and what it must have looked like 30 years ago when it was new: https://images.travexpress.net/pages/013705.jpg

Oh and someone said people would be getting on and being assigned seats on your bed. Maybe in some places. Dont know. But the two trains I took, the people getting on for short joruneys sat in a car with seats. In this case the beds were sold for the full journey.

Man in Seat 61 and a number of you tube videos show that on the Trans Siberian (not the Kazakh Trains) modern cars were introduced around 5 years ago which do convert to seated cars by day.
On the Trans Sib, Man in Seat 61 says that you can also reserve 4 berth compartments for 1, 2 or 3 people If you pay for the unoccupied berths.

Overall setup depends on the train, I find double-deckers like the ones on Mow-Spb route quite a bit less spacious, but I would assume they don't use double deckers or brand-spanking-new rolling stock for Transsib routes (I might be wrong, though - it's been decades since I took a train Eastward from Moscow).

Generally, yes, you are expected to share the bottom bunks with your fellow travelers during the day.

Thanks everyone for the comprehensive comments and advice. I'm going to book an upper bed for a little more privacy and flexibility.