I was late for the train: what to do if you are late, can you return the ticket and will the money be returned, is it possible to return or change the ticket, how to return the money spent and what rights does a late passenger have?

What if you are late for the train? Should I run after the train, maybe I can catch it, or buy a ticket for another train?

Feel free to reject both options, because such a case is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. Let's look at how to get a refund for a travel ticket if you are late for the train.

Ticket re-issuance

The best option, provided that the trip can be postponed, would be to replace the ticket. This will allow you to leave another day with a minimum of time and nerves.

Additional Information! It is important to remember that even if you are very late for your train, you can apply for a ticket replacement, since the law allows 12 hours for this. If there is a valid, documented reason, the period is extended to 5 working days.

If you are late for the train, you should take the following steps to reissue your ticket:

You should go to the nearest ticket office located at the railway station.
Pay the specified amount for re-registration.
Pay other required fees.
Next, a recalculation will be issued and the additional amount that needs to be paid will be indicated. The opposite case is possible when the new ticket is cheaper than the previous one. In this case, the passenger receives the difference.

Additional Information! Re-registration is possible only if there are free seats on other trains in this direction.

Ticket re-issuance

Advantages of reissuing your boarding pass:

There is no need to buy a new one at full price;
The ability to leave by the nearest train, minimizing the loss of time.

The disadvantages are as follows:

It is possible that there are no available seats on other flights;
If the price is higher, you will have to pay extra for another ticket.

But there are times when exchanging a boarding pass does not solve the problem. In this case, you can simply hand it over. How to make a return is described below.

Additional Information! You can return your ticket only by visiting the ticket office in person.
This cannot be done on the official Russian Railways website.

E-ticket. Return procedure

an interesting article
about how to get money back for loan insurance here.

Today, there are no problems either with the purchase of electronic tickets or with their return. But before moving on to a detailed description of the procedure on how to return money for a Russian Railways electronic ticket, it is worth mentioning three points.

When buying a ticket at the Russian Railways ticket office in cash, you should expect that the refund will also be made only in cash. If the ticket was purchased at the box office or on the website by bank transfer, then the refund will be made in the same form. Cash refunds are made at the time of contacting the cashier. Refunds to the card are made within a period of 7 to 30 days.
For those who miss a train and don't know whether they will get a refund, you shouldn't expect that if you get a refund, you will receive the full cost of the ticket. The refund amount depends on many factors: time before departure, cost of insurance, etc.
The ticket goes back on sale immediately after being returned and can be purchased by any buyer. That is, if you bought a ticket through the site, made any mistakes when registering it and decided to exchange it at the box office, then there is no guarantee that you will get the same ticket again, since anyone can buy it from the moment it is returned.

You can find out about refunds if you are late for a flight in the article: how to get a refund for non-refundable air tickets

To return an electronic ticket, you can go in two ways:

Contact the Russian Railways ticket office, where an employee will carry out the return procedure independently.
Make a refund through the website where the ticket was purchased. This method is suitable for those who do not have time to travel to the Russian Railways ticket office, since the return procedure itself takes several minutes.

To cancel an electronic ticket through the website, you should go to the Russian Railways website and log in. Next you should go to the tab called “My Orders”. After this, you will need to select the tab with purchased tickets in the required section, select one of them and click on the “Request ticket status” button. Then a button “Make a refund” will appear next to the ticket, by clicking on which the user initiates the refund procedure. As soon as the user clicks on this button, the rules for making a refund and the amount of the amount that he will receive after the electronic ticket is returned are displayed in front of him.

Statistical data

Sapsan trains carried 16.4% more passengers in 2020 than a year earlier. And since 2010, JSC Russian Railways has increased the number of passengers on high-speed trains almost 7 times.

The cost of the refund will differ from the cost of the purchased ticket. Regardless of the circumstances, a fixed fee of 185 rubles 40 kopecks will be deducted from it. This amount is deducted from each Russian Railways ticket upon return. It does not apply to free tickets for children under 5 years of age. Afterwards, a return coupon will appear on the screen, which it is advisable to print and save. This is what the procedure for returning an e-ticket looks like.

If the buyer purchased a ticket electronically, but has already received a coupon at the box office, then it will turn from electronic to regular. It will not be possible to return it via the Internet. You will have to contact the Russian Railways ticket office, this is quite simple. You just need to give the cashier your passport, and he will do everything himself in a few minutes.

If you do not want to lose a large amount when returning, then do this no later than 8 hours before the train leaves the station. Otherwise, you can lose almost the entire cost of the ticket.

To learn about returning an erroneous payment, read the article: How to get money back for an incorrect payment

Ticket return

What to do if your flight is canceled

The ticket must be returned to the person for whom it was previously issued. This can only be done at the railway ticket office if you have the following documents:

passport or other identity document;
paper ticket or electronic coupon number.

Additional Information! Refunds can only be made at the departure station within 12 hours after the train departs from the point of departure. Return to overseas trains is possible within one hour after departure.

If the passenger is late for the train, the passenger who contacts the ticket office may receive a refund of the full cost of the ticket, excluding the following costs:

The amount paid for the use of the carriage and seat. It is included in the cost of the boarding pass and can range from 35 to 75%.
This also includes the cost of service installation of the Tutu.ru website.
You will have to pay for the operation to return the ticket.

As a result, after deducting all costs, a late passenger will be able to receive up to 50% of the full cost of his ticket. Please note that if you are late due to the fault of Russian Railways, you can demand a refund of the full cost.

What does a train ticket look like?

When returning tickets for the Sapsan electric train, you can get your money back on general legal grounds, since it is a domestic transport vehicle. But there are several nuances regarding special fares on this flight:

first of all, according to the round-trip fare, electronic tickets can only be returned if the boarding passes are returned at the same time;
First you need to issue a return boarding pass in the opposite direction, and then proceed to the ticket under the “there” column.

For example, if the train route is St. Petersburg - N. Novgorod, then first you should give your boarding pass from Nizhny Novgorod, then from St. Petersburg. When registering, you will need a passport. The reason why a person refuses a trip can be absolutely any, since by law the money must be returned, even if the passenger simply changed his mind about going.

What rights does a passenger have?

If you are late for the train, then first of all the passenger must be guided by legal laws:

Federal Law No. 18 “Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation” (Article 3).
Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated December 19, 2013 No. 473 “On approval of the Rules for the transportation of passengers, luggage, cargo luggage by rail” (read about the rules of rail transportation here, and we talk about the rules for the transportation of luggage here).

Federal law prescribes the possibility of returning or reissuing a purchased and unused travel document, even after the transport has left. However, it will no longer be possible to get the full amount back.

The reason is that the price of a train ticket includes the cost of several services:

use of railway infrastructure;
reserved seat, that is, a place in the carriage;
insurance (mandatory);
service fees (for example, if purchased at a location other than the departure station, an additional fee will apply).

Russian Railways undertakes to compensate costs with the exception of the cost of a reserved seat and service fees upon return. If you want to renew (re-issue) your ticket, you will have to pay an additional amount equal to the cost of the reserved seat.

The federal law also specifies a time limit during which you can contact the cash desk for a refund or re-registration:

12 hours from the moment of departure of the train in general order;
5 days if the delay occurred due to illness or accident.

Please note that if you were unable to use the coupon due to serious circumstances beyond your control, this will give you an advantage in time, but only if you can provide documentary evidence. Therefore, it is better to obtain the relevant certificates immediately.

Important : Return and renewal rules apply exclusively to long-distance routes. If you missed a commuter train in which the seats are not indicated, the money will not be returned.

So, if difficulties arise, you can refer to the following documents:

Federal Law No. 18 “Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation” (Article 3).
Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated December 19, 2013 No. 473 “On approval of the Rules for the transportation of passengers, luggage, cargo luggage by rail.”

How to use the same ticket

What to do if you lost your documents while on vacation

But what should you do if you are late for your train, but you need to go today? For example, it is impossible to change plans or reschedule a meeting. There is only one option here - to overtake the departing train and sit down at the next station. Of course, it will be suitable provided there is a short time delay and a close distance to the next stopping point. Also, it is worth considering additional financial costs. It may be better to use another type of transport - a bus, or use the services of an airline.

I missed the Russian Railways train. What to do?

What to do if you are left with a ticket for a transport that left without you?

Keep your travel document and passport (or other document used for purchase) with you. It will still be useful.
Assess the situation: “How long were you delayed? Do you need to leave urgently?”
Find out if there is a later departing transport that would be convenient for you to leave. This can be done directly on the Russian Railways website, on the websites of agents involved in the sale of ticket coupons, or by calling the ticket office.

After analyzing the current situation, you can choose the appropriate way to solve the problem:

catch up with the train and get on at the next station;
reissue the ticket and leave on another one;
return some of the money.

Each of the listed options has both advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a closer look at them.

"Get on" at the next station

If the minutes count down, you can take a chance and follow the train to the next stop.

This trick makes sense if you know exactly the route of the railway transport, there is a person accompanying you in a car or the ability to quickly find a taxi, and you have your bearings on the area.

The last point is important because finding a train station in an unfamiliar city sometimes turns into a real “quest” and the navigator cannot always help.

You should also take into account that a city, even if it is small, may have several train stations.

If you fail to guess the point of departure, you will lose time and chances to “intercept” your train.

However, if everything goes well, you can take the seat indicated on the travel document, even if the conductor, having decided to earn extra money, has already assigned a ticketless citizen to your place.

In such a situation, you can always flaunt the fact that the ticket is valid throughout the entire route, and the “rules for the carriage of passengers by rail” do not specify that the passenger must board at the station indicated in the travel document.

So, the “advantages” of chasing a train:

saving time;
saving money (if taxi costs do not exceed the cost of a reserved seat, which is not reimbursed when processing a refund and is not taken into account when renewing).

"Minuses":

additional costs associated with the need to cover a significant distance in the shortest possible time;
the risk of not making it in time and getting “stuck” far from the city.

Re-registration

If I am late for transport, can I change my ticket? The second, more measured way - re-issuing a ticket - is worth choosing if the time of arrival is not fundamentally important for you. So, you have 12 hours (or 5 days if you have a certificate of illness or accident) to calmly come and renew your travel document.

How to reissue a ticket?

This can only be done at the station ticket office..
You will have to pay a re-registration fee.
Pay extra for a reserved seat.
If the fare on the next available train is higher, you will be required to pay for the difference. If it’s cheaper, then on the contrary, you get compensation.

Important: You can renew your travel ticket only if there are free seats.

"Pros" of the exchange:

no need to buy a new ticket at full price;
you can leave on the next flight, losing a minimum amount of time.

"Minuses":

during the “high season” there may be difficulties with the availability of free places;
additional costs if the fare for the next route is higher.

Is it possible to get a refund for a train ticket if you didn’t leave?

Depending on the timing and circumstances, the amount received will be paid in full or in part. But how can you return an e-ticket for Russian Railways? In turn, ticket refunds are possible in the following ways:

by handing over to the railway ticket office;
using your personal account on the Russian Railways website or the resource of an intermediary company (for example, a tour operator through which the ticket was purchased).

Sometimes you can return tickets using self-service terminals.

What determines the choice of ticket return method? When returning Russian Railways e-tickets, remember that your choice directly depends on several factors. So, if you haven’t used your ticket yet, but have already printed it out, you can only issue it at the railway station ticket office.

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.

Refund of money for a ticket if you miss the Russian Railways train

Amount to be refunded

When initiating the refund procedure for a purchased railway transport ticket, it is necessary to take into account that the carrier will issue a refund minus the cost of the ticket 192 rubles 70 kopecks.

If we are talking about being late for a train going to foreign countries, then when you return the money for the purchased travel pass, the fee will be 10 euros.

READ About existing discounts on train tickets, conditions and procedure for obtaining them

Thus, in some cases, if the cost of the travel document was extremely small, the amount of additional fee charged to the person may minimize the advisability of initiating a refund of the funds spent.