How to buy tickets at the station in

Myanmar
By Mark Smith

◾You can buy train tickets in person at the station ticket office, it's easy. Reservations are not
computerised, but based on hand-written manual reservation lists, so bookings can only be made at the
station where your journey starts, not for journeys starting elsewhere. Every main station has a clear
information board showing train times in English, and sometimes fares.

◾Upper class bookings open 3 days in advance. Ordinary class bookings open just one day in advance.
You can't buy tickets before bookings open. At some smaller stations you may be told to come back and
buy a ticket just before departure.

◾Apart from the train times & fares boards there are relatively few signs in English, but don't worry -
just ask at the first available ticket window and as a foreigner you will normally be invited inside the
ticket office (!) and told to sit down while someone is called to help you. You will need the names,
nationality and passport number of each passenger as these will be written on your ticket. Tickets are
hand-written.

◾I'd recommend buying your ticket at least the day before departure if you can, but it's usually not
difficult for a foreigner to secure a Upper class or ordinary class seat on the day of departure. All
passengers get a reserved seat, the coach & seat numbers will be written on the ticket. Sleepers are in
short supply on the main Rangoon to Mandalay route as there's only one sleeping-car per train, so book
a day or two ahead if you can, or order in advance. But you're unlikely to have any trouble getting a
sleeper on the direct train from Rangoon to Bagan even on the day of departure.

◾To buy train tickets in Rangoon on the day of travel itself, go to the station. Tickets for trains leaving
the same day are sold at the station. Take your passport and enter the station by the right-hand main
entrance and for tickets to Mandalay or Bagan look for the first ticket window on the left. You'll find a
money changer and several ATMs at the station if you need them, as well as food kiosks and a cafe.

◾To buy train tickets in Rangoon 1-3 days before travel, go to the Advance Booking Office. Take your
passport, and go to the Advance Booking Office which is not in the station itself but in Bogyoke Aung San
road on the south side of the tracks, opposite the Sakura Tower & 33rd street, and diagonally opposite
the Traders Hotel. Look for the entrance sign shown in the photo below. It is open daily 07:00-15:00. It
looks more like a farmyard than a reservations office! Walk off the main road, 30m down the track into
the booking hall proper, and you'll see a row of about 10 ticket windows. The window for booking trains
from Rangoon to Mandalay is the first one on the left. You may also be able to book train tickets
through your hotel.

◾In Mandalay, to buy train tickets go to the ticket office on the first floor of the station, above the
tracks.