May holidays fail to slow decline in long-distance train travel
MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - The decline in Russian long-distance passenger train services continued to deepen in May, despite the long holidays.
Russian Railways (RZD) reported that the number of passengers carried by long-distance trains in May tumbled 11.2% from a year earlier (8.1 million passengers), after dropping 9.3% in April and March. The decline was also deeper than in January, when traffic slumped 2.4% year-on-year, and in February, when there was a 5.5% drop despite the addition of trains during the Olympics in Sochi.
Prior to this, national passenger train traffic declined with short respites throughout 2013 as well. After dropping in January and correcting in February, there were drops of 1.1% in March and 3.5% in April. May saw a 2.4% increase due to the longer holidays than in 2012, but passenger traffic was down year-on-year throughout the summer, despite the summer travel peak - by 4.8% in June, 6.1% in July and 6.8% in August. The decline slowed to 5.8% in September, but then accelerated to 7.5% year-on-year in October, 7% in November and 8.1% in December.
The number of passengers travelling by long-distance train fell by 8.3% to 37.2 million in January-May.
RZD president Vladimir Yakunin attributed the decline to the growth of regulated ticket prices. In 2013 the federal government decided to raise the price of tickets in sitting cars and third-class sleeper cars by 20% rather than by 10% as in the previous few years. The Cabinet opted for the bigger price hike after RZD and its subsidiary Federal Passenger Company complained that the government was not providing sufficient compensation to offset the costs of regulated fares. As a result, the subsidies were cut while ticket prices were raised by 20%.