Russian Railways Unveils New 'Platzkart' Redesign

A model demonstrates how to access the top bunk in a life-size model of a train’s open-plan sleeping carriage.

Beds in the demonstration carriage feature double USB chargers…

…wraparound curtains…

…and a sliding portal that opens onto neighboring beds.

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.
 

An operational platzkart carriage in 2015. The open design offers the cheapest beds for long-distance train travel in Russia.

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.

Platzkart carriages are known for being safe and social…

…but cramped…

…and sometimes smelly, especially on long trips like this one making the four-day journey from Moscow to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

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…

…and access to a table.

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.