Ukrainian trains’ dirty, smelly and stuffy sleeper cars might become a thing of the past if the government succeeds implementing the program which attempts to fix some of the most unpleasant aspects of the country’s railway travel. So far, however, the good intentions affect only a tiny fraction of the state-owned railway monopoly’s fleet.
Elaborating on the plan, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said the cars will be equipped with vacuum toilet system, meaning that the use of toilets will no longer be banned while trains are passing urban areas.
Omelyan also pledged to improve the quality of bedclothes, promising to get rid of the feather-stuffed pillows, known from the Soviet Union times, as well as “dusty blankets” made of wool – as he fittingly described them – and the permanently dirty curtains, which would be replaced with window blinds.
After the modernization, the cars get an air condition, electric current charges, better lighting system, and announcement panels in sleeping compartments.
The digital service would also more likely to be improved, providing non-stop wireless internet for passengers. As of now, the low-speed internet is accessible in the first and second classes of the intercity express trains, though the connection is often unreliable.
“We’ll implement European-level service that will totally correspond to hygiene and comfort norms,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Oct. 8. While promising, the planned rehaul of Ukrzaliznytsia’s ailing fleet has one significant drawback. By the end of 2017 it would affect only 300 railway cars, or around 5 percent of the state monopoly’s total number of sleepers.
The improvements will also affect commuter trains, as Omelyan’s ministry plans to launch electronic tickets for the commuters. Today, the tickets are only available at the train stations or through a conductor onboard.
Besides, the minister announced changes into language usage. Tickets and passenger announcements will be made simultaneously in Ukrainian and English languages.
So far, the common practice is to print tickets in Ukrainian and Russian, while English announcement can be heard only on a board of intercity trains and big train stations.
Earlier, Wojciech Balchun, recruited from Poland to reform the state monopoly, also pledged to improve the passenger service. He plans to put back on track two Czech-manufactured two-floors trains. The trains purchased in time for Euro-2012 football championship weren’t in use ever since.
