The Berlin-Kiev express: Out of Europe, properly

By Stefan Korshak Apr 20, 2010, 15:17 GMT

Berlin/Kiev - Anyone who has a thing for trains should probably hop the Berlin-Kiev express at least once - but you really have to be a true railroad enthusiast to enjoy the entire 25-hour, 39-minute trip.

A ride aboard the 441 Kashtan begins on a railtrack generally devoted to slow-moving commuter trains at Berlin's Zoo train station.

There, the traveller finds a string of Soviet-style train cars - some with chipping blue paint - a battered-looking diesel electric locomotive in front, and oversized bags and people speaking mostly Russian clustered at each carriage door.

Up three steel steps into the carriage, and for the price of an 85 euro (115 dollar) one-way ticket - without a single full body X-Ray, intimation of racial profiling or pre-flight crash instruction - one climbs right out of Western Europe and onto the tatty carpet of Ukrzhelesnisia, the Ukrainian national rail company.

Frequent riders say the Kashtan routinely rumbles out of the Zoo Station right on time. It does however clack, rattle and bump along its entire route, so light sleepers are wise to take along earplugs.

There is only one class, second. The sleeper cabin contains three bunks in a single stack; the bottom two featuring a mere 50 cm of headroom. A wise passenger reserves the top bunk, where you may sit up without bumping your head.

The decor is an eclectic mix of plasticised wood, steel and aluminium fittings, and faux leather seating, mostly in earth tones and sometimes in floral prints. Adjacent to the window in each compartment is a small table with a metal rim that experienced passengers sometimes use as an impromptu, but nonetheless effective bottle-opener.

Windows, in keeping with Ukrainian fears concerning colds and droughts, are almost always locked. In the corridor section of a sleeper car recently checked by a reporter from the German Press Agency dpa, of one dozen windows that could allow fresh air into the carriage, only three worked and would only open halfway.

Experienced travellers carry along light clothes and slippers to change into for the ride.

It helps to get along with children, especially small ones, when riding the Kashtan.

Many passengers are bi-national families travelling between Ukraine and Germany, and unwilling to subject themselves to an airplane. On a recent run to Kiev, more than half a dozen pre-schoolers wandered the carriage corridor during daylight hours. All were fairly well behaved and some were quite curious about other passengers.

But the key to enjoying, rather than just surviving, the 441 Kashtan as it bumps along at an average speed of some 80 kilometres an hour - stops not included - is the carriage attendant, a Ukraine Railways employee responsible for checking tickets and making 25-plus hours in a sometimes stuffy and frequently crowded sleeper carriage bearable.

The attendant is, per the railroad policy posted on carriage walls, obliged to offer passengers hot drinks at least three times a day and hot water from the carriage boiler on request.

Bottled water, beer and sweets are available as well, and all of it inexpensively - a euro is sufficient for two cups of orange pekoe in a bag, with sugar and lemon.

But the attendant is more importantly an unmatched source of useful travel information. He knows whether it will be a hassle to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border (no, unless you are obviously smuggling cigarettes); how long it will take workers to change the carriage wheels from the narrower European track gauge to the wider Russian gauge (about 90 minutes, they jack up the carriage to do it); or which stop is best for picking up fresh food when the dining car isn't serving.

Women carrying baskets on the platforms at Kovel station - just over the border in Ukraine - were offering fresh-baked dumplings stuffed with potatoes or fruit, roast chickens, smoked sausages, slabs of butter, hard and soft cheese, pickled cabbages and tomatoes, and white and dark bread during a recent stop by the Berlin-Kiev express.

Attendants rarely speak anything beyond Ukrainian, Russian and basic English or German. But they are also as a rule the Ukrainian railroad's most experienced carriage attendants, and few passenger requests will phase them.

A trip aboard the Kashtan is most pleasant, if four things are true: one is good friends with the other two persons in the compartment; at least one of them is personable enough to get along with the carriage attendant; one brings along a good supply of food and lounge clothing; and time is not of the essence.

The arrival in Kiev is on time, to the minute. But once you get off the Kashtan, you're back in the big city.