"To Lviv by train" Lviv Transportation Tip by toonsarah

I came to Lviv by train from Krakow with a group of other VTers, and it was quite an adventure – an adventure that some of us enjoyed more than others! I have to say that I fell into the first group. I have always loved travelling by train. There is a definite romance to it, and however scruffy the train and slow the journey, something in me responds to that – maybe my inner Michael Palin coming out!

Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed this journey, but I don’t want to ignore the drawbacks. The main one of these is time – you need a lot of it! We left Krakow at about 1.20 pm (should have been 1.01 pm) and didn’t arrive in Lviv until midnight. As the Ukraine is one hour ahead of Poland that’s a journey time of nine and a half hours. The return trip was similar, leaving Lviv at about 7.20 am and arriving in Krakow at 3.30 pm = just over 9 hours. These are quite elderly trains and consequently move slowly, but the main causes of the long journey times are the border formalities (especially clearing Ukrainian immigration) and the need to change the whole undercarriage (the bogey) to accommodate the different gauges used in Poland and Ukraine. This is a major operation. A few carriages at a time are shunted into a siding where huge jacks raise them to a height which allows the engineers to get underneath, detach and slide out one set of wheels, and slide in and make secure the others. You can stay on the train throughout (indeed the doors are locked I think) and watch from the windows, which is entertaining for a while, but unless you’re a real train enthusiast you may find the novelty has worn off long before the operation is complete.

All of the above also means lots of interruptions to your journey, which are welcome mini-events when travelling by day but (I gather from those who travelled overnight) a major irritation if trying to sleep. Talking of sleep, travel by day and night is in compartments which can be converted from seating to bunks, so having a lie down is possible at any time. We travelled in a second class compartment, which meant three people sharing, and managed to arrange things so we shared only with VTers. However the corridor was a great meeting place for everyone from the carriage, and on the outward journey we had fun chatting (as far as language limitations would allow) to some of our neighbours – a mining engineer returning from a conference to his home near Kiev, and a young Russian guy who had just said goodbye to his new Polish wife as they had to wait several months for her to get permission to come to live in Russia with him.

We also found the carriage attendants to be friendly and helpful (photo 3). They will brew up a coffee or tea (the first cup is free), sell small snacks such as chocolate bars or peanuts (and dish out free, and tasty, croissants as “souvenirs”) and help you on and off the train with your bags. A bottle of water was also provided for each passenger, but you may want to supplement the on-board catering with your own supplies – a bottle of wine will help the journey go faster for sure!

Finally, there are toilets at each end of the corridor, but some less salubrious than others, although the smelliest one was cleaned by the attendant part way through the journey. Smoking isn’t allowed in the carriage but is possible in the spaces between.

Lviv’s grand (if rather rundown) station (photos 4 and 5) lies some distance to the west of the town centre so you will probably want to take a taxi to and from it. If you do, make sure you confirm the price before you set off. Arriving late and tired from Krakow we made the silly mistake of not doing so, and nor had we quite familiarised ourselves with the exchange rates, so we were well and truly ripped off. On our return we had booked several taxis for the group and agreed on 25 UAH for the trip, which is reasonable.

I understand from Matt that it isn’t possible to book tickets in advance from outside the country – and from his accounts it’s also pretty difficult to book them from within!

Mode: TO
Type: Train