JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has reduced the frequency of trains running to the Russian Federation, and from February 5, 2019, trains No. 24/23 Odesa-Moscow-Odesa and No. 20/19 Kharkiv-Moscow-Kharkiv will run every other day instead of the daily service.
“A reduction in the frequency of trains running to Russia is due to a steep decline in passenger traffic between the countries. Thus, in 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia handled 772,900 passengers traveling to Russia, which was almost 20% down from 2017,” the Ukrainian company’s press service said on Feb. 5 morning.
According to Ukrzaliznytsia’s statistics, since the end of the summer of 2018, passengers began to travel by rail to the European Union much more frequently. So, for the period from August to the end of last year, the number of passengers traveling to the EU was 10 percent upon the number of passengers traveling to Russia. From August 2018 to January 2019, 362,900 passengers were transported to the EU and back, and 329,400 passengers traveled to Russia and back.
“In general, Ukrzaliznytsia’s experts predict foreign passenger traffic will continue its shift towards the European direction. Thus, Ukrzaliznytsia has already appointed 20 train pairs to run to the business and tourist centers of Europe,” the report said.
