Today is short and to the point. Until recently, when I needed to buy a ticket for a Russian Railways train, I always used the website. In principle, this remains a convenient option, however, now I am considering another option - purchasing through the Russian Railways application. There is one great feature that for some reason is not on the site.
Russian Railways has an official application “Train Tickets”. However, I did not find it very convenient; in particular, the process of selecting trains and seats in the carriage leaves much to be desired. Moreover, there are negative reviews about problems and shortcomings. Therefore, I recommend using the unofficial “Russian Railways Tickets” application, which can be downloaded for Android. He also has higher grades. It has very convenient functionality, and, just like in official version, no commission.
There is a Railway Tickets app for iPhone, but as far as I know, they charge commission on purchase(which is not announced in advance). Don't use it!
If we return to the “Russian Railways Tickets” application, then, in my opinion, The main convenience is the ability to save passenger data, so as not to fill in the same information every time.
This is implemented here as follows. When making a purchase for the first time, we enter passenger data and are prompted to save it. Next time we simply select the desired passenger and the form is filled in automatically:
All this can be edited, deleted or added passengers in retrospect.
In addition to the fact that this is convenient in principle, because it allows us not to make unnecessary movements, this function is simply necessary if we buy tickets under conditions of lack of time, which happens, for example, when buying tickets for Sapsan for 999 rubles. Instructions for purchasing these tickets. Every second counts, and the application will help you save these seconds.
Otherwise, everything is simple and clear, nothing unusual. We choose a train, choose a carriage, buy a ticket:
By the way, the implementation is very successful, a lot of information is clearly displayed on one screen. In the official Russian Railways application, it seemed to me that the process of selecting a train and carriage is quite inconvenient. And here you immediately see which seat and which compartment:
Well, what more could you want from an app for buying train tickets?
Rate the article!Selling and booking tickets on the carrier’s official website has long since surprised no one. But it’s not 2010, but 2017. And while citizens are watching, not without pleasure, the rise in oil prices and with displeasure at the prices of many other things, Russian Railways has decided to modernize its mobile business.
Russian Railways had its own application before, and not for the spherical “Yotafon” or “Elbrus”, but for a completely modern Android platforms, which has the largest user base in Russia. It was planned to add support for other platforms later.
This “later” came six months ago. We won an order to develop an updated application for Android and two other mobile operating systems: iOS and the not quite deservedly persecuted by many Windows Phone. Several months of active development, testing and improvements - the beta version is ready.
We'll tell you how we did it below the cut.
Russian Railways released its first mobile application for the store last year Google Play. It's called "Train Tickets". This is the only official application of the carrier. Everything that is presented in the stores besides it is either software from intermediaries who charge an agent commission of up to 15%, or something unofficial and not always working as it should.
We were given the task of reworking the application taking into account the accumulated user experience and publishing new version immediately to all major application stores: Google Play, AppStore and Windows Store.
During development, we tried to maintain a balance between classic ticketing applications and the desire to introduce something new that will help users customize everything for themselves. This is how the application “Russian Railways” came about. Train tickets". 
Evolution of the interface of the main application pages
Interface
When designing the UI, we were guided by three simple rules:
Predictability.
Simplicity for a beginner and convenience for an experienced user.
Repeated interactions with the application should be faster than the first.
Predictability
Applications that offer a mass, generic service need to be predictable, especially when it comes to ticket sales. Even without launching the application, the user must imagine what awaits him inside, and the developer’s task is not to deceive his expectations.
It’s like arriving at any railway station in the Russian Federation or Europe: everywhere you see approximately the same picture. The passenger knows that somewhere here there is a ticket office, a waiting room, a food court or a couple of cafes nearby, and here you can follow the typical signs to the platforms.
Therefore, you should not experiment too much with the UI, so as not to leave a bewildered user in the jungle of an unreadable interface. It is better to abandon radical ideas and focus on creative development of existing norms.
Simplicity for a beginner and convenience for an experienced user
If a person has just installed the application, he should not be intimidated by the abundance of buttons, columns and the complexity of the menu. Russian carriers, for example, S7 or Aeroflot, understand this rule well: the user is immediately greeted with a flight search window, without any frills. This is a user-friendly solution for new users. In turn, a regular user of the application should receive additional opportunities thanks to expanded functionality and customization.
Repeated interactions with the application should be faster than the first
All data must be entered only once - during the first use of the application. Logged in once? Great, no need to log in anymore. Did you buy a ticket? Great, now we have data about the passenger and his last flight, which we don’t have to enter again.
We believe that in mobile applications you need to save everything except payment information. Most people are unnerved by the fact that card data can be stored in an unknown place and by whom, even if it is Russian Railways, Aeroflot or any other company from the top 20. The exception is banking and payment systems, which users traditionally trust.
Guided by these three points, we tried to make our application as friendly as possible for all categories of users. Everything else: which side of the burger button is on, the color scheme, sidebar navigation - can be called, although important, but secondary. After all, if a login and password are required every time, the forms of the entered route data are not saved, or you have to enter your first and last name again and again (imagine that the application is used by someone Innokenty Konstantinovich Krestovozdvizhensky), sooner or later he will stop using the application. And he will do the right thing.
Application features
Moving smoothly from the UI, I would like to talk about what our application can do. In our opinion, this is everything a potential passenger with a smartphone in hand might need.
Namely:
Purchasing tickets (both one-way and round-trip).
Return of tickets.
Purchasing tickets with bonus points and tracking your bonus account.
Purchasing and using transport cards (this may be the first time you've heard of them, but they exist).
Storage and export of electronic tickets.
Train schedule and display of routes of interest on the main page plus storage of search history.
Saving user data.
Display of Russian Railways announcements (for example, messages about changes in the schedule of long-distance trains or commuter trains).
Navigation at stations.
FAQ.
Demonstration of the main functional pages of the mobile application
In addition, I would like to talk about some specific solutions that are not included in the global list.
Educational slides
When you first launch the application, it shows three training slides. Even though the solution may seem annoyingly trivial, it is worth remembering that the target audience of the application is not only hipsters or IT specialists, but completely ordinary passengers of trains and electric trains, who for the most part rarely use anything other than mail, cards and WhatsApp .
Therefore, in the starting slides, which we hope will help many, we have added background information about additional features applications that a less attentive or experienced user may not detect. There we also explain why authorization is needed and remind you that this is an official application, and you will not have to pay any additional agent commissions for purchased tickets. The focus group showed that it is important for people to clearly know how much money they will pay: users are afraid of hidden fees and other “clauses with an asterisk in the fine print.” 
Demonstration of training slide screens
However, we have made it so that the user encounters authorization only once during the entire time he uses the application. We have provided the opportunity to skip the authorization stage and go straight to ordering tickets, but you will still have to log in, albeit at the purchase stage. If you have been authorized once, the application will automatically pull up your data, and you as a user will not have to remember this procedure again.
Of course, the possibility of using an existing account from the Russian Railways website, so you don’t need to come up with a new login and password. The profiles in the application and on the Russian Railways website are identical - you can log in using your existing username and password or create a new account. Accordingly, it will be possible to enter it from the site. Data about all purchased tickets is transferred to your account on the website, and those purchased on the website are transferred to the application.
Anyone who has used the carrier’s official website knows that when booking tickets you have to log in again. We managed to get rid of this procedure.
Home page
On the “main” we implemented several pleasant little things. For example, by clicking on the geolocation symbol, the departure point will be determined based on your location. We made date selection in the form of a calendar rather than a “drum” to save users a few seconds. The calendar defaults to the current date.
We have also placed four modules here: “Favorite Routes”, “Request History”, “My Tickets” and “Company News”. Ideally, they cover almost all patterns of user behavior for our audience.
You can add any destinations that interest the user to “Favorite Routes”. To do this, you need to check the heart icon at the flight selection stage. After this, the module will start showing the nearest flights. If several routes are selected, you can switch between them using a swipe. In the module settings, you can select the categories of trains that should be shown. For example, it is convenient to receive the current train schedule.
Search History shows the last two routes the user searched for. There is a separate button to view all searches.
“My Tickets” shows the three most recently purchased travel documents. Upon clicking, the user is taken to the ticket page with the barcode, where, if necessary, it can be exported from the application. For example, send it to yourself by email or save it to a photo archive.
“Company news” is actually announcements for the region, primarily changes to the schedule of electric trains and trains. What information to display can be configured using filters.
Features of purchasing a ticket in the application
We thought for a long time about how to make the procedure as clear as possible, but at the same time allowing us to completely customize our future trip. As a result, they couldn’t come up with anything better than making several stages, each of which gradually specified the travel conditions. Previously, we tried to fit the booking process into 2-3 steps, but the interface turned out to be so cumbersome that we decided to abandon this idea. 
The process of purchasing tickets in the Russian Railways application
Here are some of our solutions:
1. At the stage of choosing a seat in the carriage, we show the direction of the train, the location of toilets and luggage storage areas.
2. When choosing a seat, the application immediately shows the final cost of the reservation. This is important because the price of the lower, upper seats and some “side” seats is different.
3. Even if you buy a ticket for the first time, the system will prompt you to fill in the lines with data from your profile in personal account, and all that remains is to enter your passport number. For future purchases, you will only need to select the desired passenger from the available profiles.
4. In the application, you can enter Russian Railways Bonus card details to accrue bonuses for the trip and/or transport card details to receive discounts. Or choose the benefits that Russian Railways allows you to apply for online. For example, issue a children's ticket.
5. A not very convenient phenomenon was observed on the Russian Railways website: if you reach the stage of confirming the order and then go back, then the seat you selected was considered reserved for some time, and it was not possible to re-book it immediately. We have fixed this in the app: now if you go back from the confirmation screen, the ticket will be unlocked.
6. We made the payment in the VTB web gateway, and not in the application itself. No payment information is stored. The purchase is confirmed via 3D-secure. Support for cards with non-standard numbers is provided (as in some Sberbank packages).
There are a couple more things we'd like to talk about
Firstly, we implemented the purchase of transport cards in the application. Technically, these are ordinary discount cards that can be bought at the station or on the Russian Railways website. For example, now a multiple 10% discount on travel on any train is sold for 1,000 rubles. The card is valid for 1 month.
Secondly, there is a station navigator inside the application. It is located in the left menu in the “Stations” tab. Currently, the navigator works for eight objects, but we will expand it to all train stations in cities hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup games. From there you can contact the services of the station where you are located - from the information desk to the station manager.
reference Information by stations
Development details
Finally, a little about the technical side of the application. The server backend includes a cluster of application servers using free software. We used Redhat Wildfly, Nginx, Apache HTTP server, Memcached and PostgreSQL as base software. The backend ensures the interaction of mobile clients with a whole set of accounting automated information systems of Russian Railways with data caching for quick response of the mobile client interface and the ability to dynamically filter data without re-using Russian Railways integration services. In addition, it is responsible for implementing horizontal scalability and ensuring the processing of up to 1 million requests per day.
Where to get a new application
We received permission from Russian Railways to conduct closed beta testing of the application before the official release.
To receive the beta version, simply send to:
Russian Railways is the official application for purchasing tickets from the Russian railway for devices with operating system Android.
With the help of this mobile client, you can quickly and easily buy the train tickets you need, without bothering yourself with trips to the station and standing in lines at the ticket office. Russian Railways is available for free download. By the way, if you do not have an account on Google Play, we provide the opportunity to download the installation APK file from the link below the description.
About purchasing tickets
Russian Railways allows passengers to buy train tickets online. Unfortunately, at the moment the developers have implemented the purchase of tickets only for long-distance trains. If you need to go to the suburbs, you will have to go to the station the old fashioned way, since purchasing tickets for trains traveling to the region has not yet been implemented. But the developers promise to add this feature soon.
To find the train you need and see if there are still free seats on it, you should open the search panel and enter all the necessary data into it - the point of departure and destination, as well as the date of travel. Russian Railways saves the request history, so the user can easily review the list of his previous requests, if necessary.
When viewing a train schedule, the application will provide the train number, departure and arrival times, as well as the number of available seats and the price per ticket.
Payment Methods
For now, only bank cards are used to pay for booked tickets. In the future, it is planned to expand the payment method - a payment option using Android Pay will be available.
Key Features
- online purchase of train tickets has been implemented;
- access to information about purchased tickets is only possible when connected to the network;
- intuitive interface that is easy to understand;
- it is not possible to buy tickets for trains going to the region;
- viewing current long-distance train schedules;
- payment is made using bank cards;
- The application is available for download completely free of charge;
- Android Pay support is planned to be added.
Application for purchasing Russian Railways tickets. The universal railway interchange in our country allows you to quickly reach key populated areas. Therefore, purchasing train tickets is in high demand, regardless of the season and destination. An active user of railway transport was always shocked by the long lines at the ticket office and the need to go to the station to buy tickets. Now this problem can be solved Russian Railways mobile application.
Android application functionality
The official mobile application for remote ticket purchasing is free to download. It allows you to quickly select the desired shipping point, calculate the cost and book a Russian Railways ticket in any direction. A convenient navigation system, simple interface and fast operating speed help you make a purchase in a few clicks.
The booked ticket does not need to be printed. You can show it on your phone when boarding. In addition to the booking option, free application Russian Railways allows you to obtain information about other existing services at any point along the railway line.
Advantages of the mobile version
Russian Railways Android app available for any smartphone on the popular mobile platform. It is worth noting:
- fast loading speed;
- flexible authentication system;
- no extra charges when purchasing;
- the ability to check the availability of available tickets;
- saving time, no queues.
To appreciate all the advantages of ordering tickets via mobile, download the application on our website. Popular payment systems are used to pay for tickets, so the order is made in a user-friendly format.