Russia wants to fix the price of Russian Railways tickets on New Year holidays

Russia wants to fix the price of Russian Railways tickets from December 20 to January 15. The head of the faction "Just Russia - For Truth" Sergei Mironov and State Duma (GD) deputy Yana Lantratova made such a proposal to the head of the Ministry of Transport Roman Starovoit.

"Families planning to celebrate the New Year in full face a number of serious problems. During the holiday period there is a significant increase in the cost of travel due to the mechanism of dynamic pricing, which makes transportation services unaffordable for students. The existing preferential mechanisms are insufficient, as they do not compensate for seasonal price increases. As a result, financial barriers prevent many young people from returning to their native regions, which leads to a weakening of family New Year's traditions," reads the document available to Izvestia.

In order to improve transport accessibility and support family values, the deputies consider it appropriate to temporarily suspend the application of dynamic pricing for railway tickets in the period from December 20 to January 15, establishing a fixed fare relative to the average.

In addition, it is proposed to establish for full-time students a 100 percent discount for travel in suburban trains in the period from December 25 to January 10, as well as to increase the size of the discount for travel in compartment cars of long-distance trains to 50 percent for the specified period.

"According to VTsIOM, for 44% of Russians it remains the holiday that is traditionally celebrated with the family. But the high cost of tickets and the use of the mechanism of dynamic pricing, which leads to a sharp increase in the cost of travel, prevent the observance of this national tradition", - explained to "Izvestia" the need for the proposed measures Sergei Mironov.

He recalled that in 2023, the faction's deputies proposed to introduce an additional transportation benefit for students in the amount of 25% of the cost of tickets in plackart and seated cars.

This initiative was supported by Oleg Belozerov, Director General - Chairman of the Board of JSC "Russian Railways". He noted its high social significance, but despite the positive conclusion of the company, the initiative did not pass due to the lack of approval from the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

"Today we propose to return to this topic, providing other, more weighty benefits for students, and I count on the support of the Ministry in this matter," Mironov explained.

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Earlier, on December 10, Vice President of the Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) Sergei Romashkin said that in some directions the railroad has objectively reached the limit of capacity, in connection with which rail transportation is not just lagging behind the sharp increase in demand for domestic tourism, which is especially observed in the New Year holidays.