Russian Railways Unveils New 'Platzkart' Redesign
- By Amos Chapple
A mock-up of the next generation of Russia's cheap sleeper-carriages was opened to the public in Sochi on February 13.
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A model demonstrates how to access the top bunk in a life-size model of a train’s open-plan sleeping carriage.
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Beds in the demonstration carriage feature double USB chargers…
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…wraparound curtains…
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…and a sliding portal that opens onto neighboring beds.
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The presentation of the dummy "platzkart" is the latest indication of what the next generation of open sleeping carriages will look like after images of a similar carriage design were released in 2018.
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An operational platzkart carriage in 2015. The open design offers the cheapest beds for long-distance train travel in Russia.
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People wave goodbye to a friend from a station in southern Russia. A platzkart bed for an overnight Moscow-St. Petersburg trip sells for around $20 – less than most hotels.
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Platzkart carriages are known for being safe and social…
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…but cramped…
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…and sometimes smelly, especially on long trips like this one making the four-day journey from Moscow to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
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A woman tests the curtains in the Sochi mock-up. Aleksandr Loshmanov, a spokesman for the Russian Railways subsidiary that will make the new carriages, said all passengers will have their own ventilation controls…
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…and access to a table.
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Loshmanov said his company would look at the feedback about this carriage, then make one more mock-up before a final design enters production in 2021.
