RZD Introduces Automated Ticket Purchasing through Waiting List Feature

Russian Railways has introduced an automated ticket purchasing feature on its website, utilizing a «waiting list.» This «waiting list» functionality is also now available in the «RZD Passengers» mobile app. The announcement was made by the company on July 29, 2025. Earlier in July, Ivan Kolesnikov, the deputy CEO of Russian Railways, discussed the launch of this feature and its incorporation into the mobile application.

The service operates as follows: a passenger can submit a request for a train ticket when there are no seats available. They can link a bank card in their personal account on the website and specify the maximum amount they are willing to spend. When a suitable ticket becomes available, the system will automatically charge the passenger’s card and issue the ticket without any human intervention. Passengers can predefine their preferences for parameters such as the type of carriage, number of seats, and their position (anywhere, lower, upper, not side-facing, in one compartment or section).

According to Russian Railways, the automated purchasing feature works in collaboration with VTB Bank. This new functionality relieves passengers from the need to manually monitor notifications and to make payment within two hours after a seat becomes available.

Currently, the «waiting list» feature is accessible on the website, the web version, and the «RZD Passengers» mobile app, which can be downloaded from RuStore. The company has stated that they are working on implementing automatic payment processing in the mobile version as well. Since the service launched, 720,000 tickets have been purchased through the «waiting list.»