На вокзале: покупка билета и поиск пути

What does “путь” mean at a Russian train station?

At a Russian вокзал (a large railway terminus) you juggle two numbers, and beginners mix them up. First the платформа (platform), then the путь. Путь normally means “way, path, route,” but on the railway it is the numbered track your train actually stands on. In the clip the traveller checks “Платформа номер один... но где мой путь? Путь номер шесть.” A single platform can serve several пути, so the путь number is what really gets you to your train.

Путь is also one of the most far-reaching words in Russian. Beyond the station you meet it everywhere: счастливого пути! (“have a good trip!”), по пути (“on the way”), and Млечный Путь (“the Milky Way”). Anchoring it first to a concrete train track makes all of those figurative “paths” click into place later.