Double-decker trains in Russia: description, route, features and reviews

It seems to many of us that double-decker trains appeared recently, with the launch of the Moscow-Adler route. However, their history in our country has more than a century and a half. Let's start with the main features of this updated means of transportation.

Double-decker car: key points

Double-decker , double-decker car - modernization of a conventional passenger car for greater passenger capacity. It provides a two-level arrangement of salons (one above the other). The most illustrative examples are TGV Duplex, Shinkansen E4, Shinkansen E1.

Depending on its design, such a car can accommodate 40-70% more passengers. Considering the fact that for the passage of viaducts, tunnels, electrified sections of the route with an attached contact network a limited train height is required, the designers of such cars go to all kinds of tricks: lower the ground floor as low as possible between the bogies, and reduce the height of both salons. In tourist double-decker trains, the lower level has a technical purpose, because its height is small, and the upper one is more spacious, comfortable, often with panoramic glazing. Below is a brief comparative description.

Russian double-decker trains

Are there double-decker trains in Russia? Russian Railways offers passengers four types of such cars:

• compartment (64 instead of 36 seats);
• CB (30 instead of 18);
• head-mounted coupe car (50 instead of 18-24 seats);
• restaurant (44-48 seats for visitors to the dining area).

Double-decker trains in Russia have a list of features:

• climate control - air conditioning and heating;
• tight and safe inter-car transitions;
• energy-saving LED lighting;
• three dry closets that can be used regardless of parking;
• anti-slip stairs and comfortable handrails;
• the wagons are powered only from the electric locomotive;
• GLONASS navigation and satellite communications system in a headquarters carriage;
• modernized security system - video surveillance, access control and security personnel.

Coupe in a double-decker carriage

Double-decker trains in Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara and other directions) have the following features of their compartments:

• standard places for rest and sleep, lamps, table, mirror;
• stairs to climb to the upper place;
• shelves for small luggage;
• access to the compartment only with a magnetic individual key;
• two sockets (100 W) for recharging mobile, laptops and other electronics;
• I made all the beds in the NE and the upper in the compartment;
• individual LCD display for viewing media files for each passenger (CB), headphone output (compartment, CB).

Additionally, the following services are offered to passengers: drinking and boiled water along the entire route, sanitary and hygiene items, sale of souvenirs, periodicals, tea and confectionery products.

Double-decker trains in Russia: routes

In all directions of two-level trains, Russian Railways guarantees:

• the possibility of a more affordable ticket price due to the greater passenger capacity;
• minimal damage to the environment due to the use of new materials and technologies in the manufacture of wagons;
• convenient traffic schedules (two-tier trains are fast).

Below are the directions where double-decker trains in Russia go.

Positive feedback from passengers

Positive features noted by passengers who tested double-decker trains in Russia:

• cosiness, comfort;
• new modern wagons;
• affordable price;
• reduced travel time;
• polite and friendly staff;
• ease of use of dry closets;
• access device in the compartment;
• free WIFI;
• high quality food in the restaurant;
• security;
• purity;

• availability of places for disabled people;
• a berth previously covered by conductors;
• sockets directly in the compartment;
• explorer call button;
• traffic noise is almost not heard on the top floor;
• air conditioning system;
• unusual for a Russian traveler.

Negative aspects

The shortcomings of the two-level innovation were not hidden from the eyes of passengers:

• Service. If before two conductors were in a 36-seater car, now the same number of employees is provided for 64 passengers.
• The presence of stairs. To get to the second floor, you need to overcome pretty steep stairs.
• The upper luggage rack above the entrance has disappeared - luggage can now only be stored in lockers.
• Toilets. Double-decker trains in Russia have only three cabins - one for 21 passengers (instead of 18, as in an ordinary compartment).
• Strong pitching. Due to the characteristics of the Russian railways, there is a high probability of strong rolling at the second level. It will be unsafe to be on the stairs during the journey.

Also among the shortcomings, passengers note low ceilings, unregulated climate control, unpleasant smell in cars, unfriendly conductors, bottlenecks for sleep, poor window positioning (too low), WI-FI outages, high prices for products, poor-quality, tasteless food in soldering for SV.

The history of double-decker cars in Russia

On October 30, 2013, a two-story train of 15 cars from the Tver Carriage Works went from Adler to Moscow . Before this, in August in Mineralnye Vody, the first Russian depot was opened for two-tier trains. But these events are by no means the beginning of the history of double-decker trains in our country - the first such cars were built back in 1864 at the Kolomensky Zavod. A “cuckoo” (as the train was called because of the unofficial cry “cuckoo”, which marked the beginning of the train's movement) ran between Peterhof and Oranienbaum, a section of the track in a densely populated country area.

In 1905, two-tier cars were produced on the Tver carriage building carriage. Once again, they were put into operation only after 50 years - the cars of the production of the GDR ran between Belgorod and Kharkov, Kovel and Lvov. In their image, the Leningrad Car-Building Plant created a domestic model of a double-decker car in the 70s. On the ground floor there were sleeping compartments, and the second floor was tourist, panoramic - there were only places for seating. Their release was limited - only 16 models. At this point, the story of the two-tier trains was interrupted again to begin their new page today.

Private trains

Speaking about innovations on domestic railways, it should be noted that recently the first private trains in Russia began to run:

• Electric train "Tranexpress" directions Moscow - Kaluga. Its owner is TransGroup AS, which cost $ 2 million to produce this transport at the Dimikhinsky Machine-Building Plant. Each of the cars has guides and guards, so they don’t litter, drink alcohol or smoke, sell nothing or ask for alms. One minus: all cars of the same class - the third.
• The Grand Express private luxury train runs from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The composition is considered the most comfortable in the Russian Federation. Among its services: eco-toilets with heated floors, shower, WI-FI, media player, microclimate system, remote control for adjusting lighting, electronic locks with a magnetic key, conductor call button, security service.

• 4. Electric train Severstalrels, Moscow - St. Petersburg. A comfortable electric train, which includes class 1 and 2 cars, two bar cars. The composition meets all European requirements for comfort and safety, equipped with a climate control system.

Russian Railways and private operators

The emergence of private trains does not cancel the monopoly of Russian Railways. The owners only own the rolling stock or even rent it. At the same time, they pay for the provision of railway tracks, dispatch services, locomotive traction. As for the preferential travel of citizens, the new operators have not yet canceled it. So far, there is a tendency that Russian Railways gives the most cost-effective directions to private owners, but the management hopes that in the future non-state trains will also transform unclaimed routes. Recently, a number of innovations can be seen on Russian railways - private trains, two-tier cars. Of course, shortcomings can be found in everything, but such advances in modernizing one of the oldest modes of transport in our country cannot but rejoice.