002ЩА Irkutsk to Vladivostok Day3

002ЩА Irkutsk to Vladivostok Day3 was my 7th and last full day (and bit) on board the Trans Siberian Railway.

Vladivostok is 7 hours ahead of Moscow so 002ЩА arrived, on time, at 7:05am local, which is 12:05 Moscow time. Coast to coast in Australia there is only 2 hours difference between the East and West Coast, helps to put into perspective the size of Russia.

Day 3 was from Svobodnyy to Vladivostok a distance of 1525 km. It was overcast with a few specs of blue, no rain. My first Siberian Trek is nearly over.

Meals

Breakfast

I asked for scrambled eggs and ended up with sunny side up. Even pointing to the item on the menu does not always work, could be the English translation in the menu I guess. At least the eggs are fresh and look a lot better than some I get around Asia which have very pale yokes and look fake.

Dinner

For dinner I had French style pork, though I not sure why this is French style. By this time of the trip they had started to run out of some of the menu items, no more Chicken Schnitzel for one, also think that certain beers were out as the other passengers were drinking Bud instead of Lowenbrau.

This was my last meal on board 002ЩА and whilst the dinning car is about USD10 in total over the three days more expensive than the prepaid meals, it is definitely worth it.

The Countryside

Belogorsk

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Water

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What amazed me was the power of the current in the rivers. The amount of water that is flowing from up stream, possibly Lake Baikal, is significant, this all ends up in the Pacific Ocean.

Khabarovsk-1

Khabarovsk was the last “interesting” station 002ЩА Irkutsk to Vladivostok Day3. The next few stops there was not much more than a ticket office and platform

Vyazemskaya

Ruzhino

Ugolnaya

The penultimate station on my journey. We stopped here for 2 mins.

Causeway

As we approached Vladivostok the road network started to develop into highways and freeways and this causeway which is a part of the A-370 highway. The Russians call this a low level bridge. The de Vries-Sedanka bridge opened in 2012 and is about 7.5kms in length with around 4kms over the water.

Vladivostok

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We arrived in Vladivostok on time at 7:05am. Whilst for me it was the end of an experience for most of the other passengers on board it was the end of just another train trip.

Itinerary

Station	Arrival	Stop	Departure	Distance (kms)	Journey time
Svobodnyy	0:12	3 m	0:15	7817	5 d 0 h 27 m
Belogorsk	1:08	30 m	1:38	7875	5 d 1 h 23 m
Ekaterinoslavka	2:48	2 m	2:50	7954	5 d 3 h 3 m
Zavitaya	3:31	2 m	3:33	7994	5 d 3 h 46 m
Bureya	4:13	2 m	4:15	8039	5 d 4 h 28 m
Arkhara	4:56	1 m	4:57	8090	5 d 5 h 11 m
Obluchye	6:51	15 m	7:06	8200	5 d 7 h 6 m
Birobidzhan	9:42	5 m	9:47	8360	5 d 9 h 57 m
Khabarovsk-1	12:01	30 m	12:31	8533	5 d 12 h 16 m
Vyazemskaya	14:22	15 m	14:37	8661	5 d 14 h 37 m
Bikin	16:06	2 m	16:08	8766	5 d 16 h 21 m
Luchegorsk	16:46	1 m	16:47	8813	5 d 17 h 1 m
Dalnerechensk-1	17:41	3 m	17:44	8885	5 d 17 h 56 m
Ruzhino	18:29	15 m	18:44	8942	5 d 18 h 44 m
Spassk-Dalniy	20:14	2 m	20:16	9059	5 d 20 h 29 m
Muchnaya	20:50	1 m	20:51	9101	5 d 21 h 5 m
Sibirtsevo	21:10	2 m	21:12	9119	5 d 21 h 25 m
Ussuriysk	22:11	3 m	22:14	9187	5 d 22 h 26 m
Ugolnaya	23:25	2 m	23:27	9266	5 d 23 h 40 m
Vladivostok	0:05			9299	6 d 0 h 20 m
			Total Day 7	1525

002ЩА Irkutsk to Vladivostok Day3

Day 3 on board 002ЩА was another relaxing and comfortable day where we changed time-zones one final time and travelled 1525 km . I enjoyed the country side, though the stations were a bit low key.

Looking forward to the three “S’s” again and a decent bed. From the little of Vladivostok I had seen from the train it looks like a place that I would need more than a couple of days to experience.

As I had travelled from Moscow to Irkutsk on board the 070Ч  train, the distance I travelled was slightly longer than the 9288 kms on the sign post, it was 9299 kms.