Why are train tickets in Russia so expensive?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Why are train tickets in Russia five times more expensive than in Ukraine and twice as expensive as in Italy?

The head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, Igor Artemyev, said that the system of tariffs for railroad transportation "reaches madness." It's hard to disagree with him. It should be noted that such a tariff policy of the Russian Railways brings people not only material, but also social losses.

Everything is relative

Earlier, in Soviet times, there was such a thing as "not visiting". People who, for one reason or another, were not allowed to go abroad were called non-traveling people. Now, due to the fantastic growth of transport tariffs, millions of Russian residents are no longer traveling within their own country! People often cannot go somewhere to visit at least their relatives. Indeed, in the outback, many receive only five to six thousand rubles a month and are hardly ready to give half or even all of their monthly salary for train tickets.

If the prices for basic foodstuffs in Russia and other European countries are approximately the same (there is, of course, a difference, but not several times, but only as a percentage), then the picture is completely different in railway transport. There is really solid price frenzy here.

Having traveled on Russian, Lithuanian, Italian and Ukrainian railways, I was simply shocked by the comparison and, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find a reasonable explanation for the colossal difference in ticket prices and quality of service.

Mind-blowing prices

Let's compare the cost of a night train ride between the two capitals of Ukraine and Russia. (It is known that before the war Kharkov was the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, and St. Petersburg was the Russian capital before the revolution). So, the branded train "Kiev-Kharkov" consists only of modern compartment cars. Of course, with air conditioning and all other amenities. The ticket price is 160 hryvnia, or about 700 rubles. Even a reserved seat ticket for a similar night train "Moscow-Petersburg" in summer costs 1500-2000 rubles, that is, two or three times more! Although the air conditioner there, in the reserved seat, is no longer guaranteed. A ticket to a more comfortable compartment carriage will cost you 3500-6000 rubles, or five to eight times more than a similar Ukrainian train!

Someone, perhaps, will say that salaries in Ukraine are lower than Russian ones. Indeed, it is lower, but this difference is not at all five times. A conductor on the Ukrainian railway receives about one and a half times less than his Russian counterpart. The scissors are very strange. Why, given the relatively small difference in the salaries of railway workers, such a huge difference in the cost of tickets? At the same time, Russian Railways traditionally complains about unprofitable passenger traffic. Where and on what in this case the money goes?

Earlier in the USSR, Aeroflot was considered the most expensive in terms of transportation costs, and the railroad was the cheapest and most accessible. Now it is often the other way around. For example, a compartment ticket from Moscow to Vilnius (travel one night) costs from six to eight thousand rubles, and by plane you can fly to the Lithuanian capital for four to five thousand. At the same time, for six thousand rubles (this is about 140 euros), you can fly from Vilnius to Paris and back on a low-cost airline plane …

Comparison of Russian Railways with Italian railways is no less shocking than with Ukrainian ones. There is, of course, a more significant difference in salaries, but in the other direction. The average monthly salary in Russian Railways (32 thousand rubles) is slightly higher than the average salary in Russia (30 thousand), but three times lower than the average salary in Italy (2,350 euros or about 100 thousand rubles) and half the average salary of Italian railway workers (1,650 euros or approximately 70 thousand rubles). It should be noted that at Russian Railways, the station attendant receives 8,600 rubles, an equipment repairman - 11,200 rubles, administrative personnel in Moscow - up to 100,000 rubles or more, and each of the 25 members of the Russian Railways board, together with bonuses, has more than five million rubles a month!

But back to ticket prices. Despite the fact that salaries in Italy are several times higher than in Russia, ticket prices there are much lower. The distance from Milan to Rome is about the same as from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The high-speed train "Italo" makes it in three hours. The cheapest ticket costs only 43 euros, or about 1,800 rubles. This is almost half the price of the most affordable ticket for the Russian high-speed train "Sapsan" (3,500 rubles).

Economic paradoxes

What is the secret of the relatively low Italian prices? Many economists think it's all about competition! There, on the railways, the state-owned company seriously competes with the private ones. Therefore, prices do not rise there. And in Russia the ball is ruled by one monopoly - Russian Railways, and therefore does whatever it wants …

But in Ukraine there is no such competition, and prices are five times lower. Moreover, in terms of contribution to the labor income of the population of Ukraine - 3.90%, Ukrzaliznytsia ranks first in the world, overtaking not only Samsung (2.60%), but also the Russian Gazprom, which is only in eighth place in this rating (1.44 %). Ukrzaliznytsia is also a leader in job creation. True, in terms of contribution to income tax, Gazprom is in third place (12.30%), and Ukrzaliznytsia is only 18th (3.71%). Nevertheless, the Ukrainian railways are ahead of the Russian Sberbank, which is in 19th place (3.51%). This interesting study was carried out by the Expert media holding using the methodology of the Ernst and Young company. It is noteworthy that Russian Railways is not even close to any of these ratings. But it is known that the total subsidies of Russian Railways in some years exceeded 100 billion rubles.

This was publicly stated by President Vladimir Putin.

It turns out to be an amazing paradox. Ukrainian railways manage not only to maintain prices five times lower than Russian ones, but also to bring considerable benefits to their country. Why, in Russian Railways, crazy subsidies are miraculously combined with exorbitant ticket prices? Because there are widely used old tricks that appeared in the era of Gorbachev's perestroika. The method is simple: in the key shop of the plant, an allegedly independent private cooperative was created. It was he who then received almost all the profits, and the losses were hung only at the plant. Even now, the most delicious and most profitable railway structures in Russia are in the hands of "independent" entrepreneurs. But in Ukraine, the situation is different. This is probably the whole secret!

Service and comfort

As soon as the Russian train departs, the passengers on the broadcast, like a prayer, are read out verbose boring instructions on what can and cannot be done on the train. From the point of view of railway bureaucrats, this is caring about passengers, but in reality - formalism on the verge of idiocy. At the same time, the employees of Russian Railways themselves do not follow the instructions too much. Leaving the carriage of the Moscow-Kaliningrad train at the station, I almost fell, because the conductor did not clear the steps from the snow. It's good that I ended up without a heavy suitcase, otherwise I could get injured.

Since Soviet times, the so-called "branded trains" have been preserved on Russian railways. I remember how on the Moscow-Leningrad branded train they forcibly imposed on nobody the branded food they needed in the form of dry rations with processed cheese, which even then no one wanted to eat.

The difference between the branded train and the usual one, in terms of speed, was insignificant, but in terms of service it was practically imperceptible and sometimes came down to only flowers in pots, which did not so much decorate the corridor of the compartment carriage as interfered with the passengers. Recently, in order to increase the attractiveness of the Yantar branded train, Russian Railways reduced the speed of the parallel simple train Kaliningrad-Moscow. Now he gets to the capital for three hours longer. Moreover, in some sections it follows at a speed with which trains ran a hundred years ago - 40-50 kilometers per hour. Such a high-speed "progress" in Russian Railways …

It is surprising that the Soviet Union is long gone, and the branded trains have remained. It is clear why - they are much more expensive than conventional ones, and therefore more profitable for Russian Railways. But not passengers! We are essentially left with no choice and are forced to support such an obsessive pseudo service with the ruble. I must say that you will not find such a "proprietary miracle" in any European country! In the former republics of the USSR, there are very positive examples, which for some reason Russian Railways stubbornly ignores.

As early as 20 years ago, immediately after Lithuania gained independence, noticeable changes took place in railway sleeping cars: eternally dusty mattresses disappeared forever. It turned out that the soft shelves are quite comfortable without mattresses. It has become much easier to make the bed. Russians who use Lithuanian trains can confirm this. It is not clear what prevents Russian Railways from adopting this positive experience. After all, the Russian plant in Tver now even makes second-class carriages with soft shelves.

At the train station in Milan, Italy, you don't need to lift a heavy suitcase anywhere - you can roll it everywhere along special ramps, or raise and lower it by an elevator. At the entrance to the metro I saw the steps, as we got ready to lug the suitcase, but that was not the case. It turns out that a small escalator is specially designed for suitcases.

Such care for passengers in Russia has never dreamed of anyone! Russian Railways recently spent millions to renovate a railway station in Kaliningrad. Now it began to look much more pompous: there are marble and granite all around, and in the center of the hall there is a fountain. But, alas, the passengers did not become more comfortable - wheelchairs can be rolled along the ramps, but not heavy suitcases. It seems that when drawing up and approving the reconstruction project, they did not think not only about the passengers, but even about the staff of the station. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why, after expensive repairs, the only cafe was closed, where both passengers and employees of Russian Railways could have a relatively inexpensive lunch. Now at that station only ice cream can be bought from food …

For comparison: at the train station in Vilnius, in addition to a cafe, there is also a small supermarket, which is located in the basement next to the storage room. This is much more convenient for passengers than small kiosks with a very limited assortment, like at our stations.

Railroad food or fasting?

On the Lithuanian train "Vilnius-Moscow" the prices in the restaurant are quite democratic, as in the average city cafe. You can dine for 200 rubles, and dine for about 300. On the Moscow-Kaliningrad train, which can also take you to Vilnius, lunch will last no less than a thousand! The first dish is about 300 rubles, the second is about 500, the side dish is about 100. Dessert is 200 rubles. It is not surprising that the Lithuanian train in the restaurant is full of people, and in the Russian one it is often empty.

But one day I managed to see a full house in the Russian Railways restaurant car. There were people who were equally dressed - it turns out that they were feeding the train conductors in an organized manner. Moreover, as it turned out, they were deducted from them for only 80 rubles each. It is difficult to imagine a more absurd situation. Well-fed conductors and hungry passengers, most of whom cannot afford a dining car with such prices.

Well, it's also good if the train does not travel more than a day - you can take some food with you. And what about those poor fellows who travel from afar for two or three days or more? How do they feed? After all, there are no refrigerators for food on our trains. And at the stations now, too, no one serves lunch, as in the old Soviet times, as shown in the famous film by Eldar Ryazanov "A Station for Two". An acquaintance of mine, who had recently traveled for three days, recalled that only one station, somewhere in the Volga region, was offered any kind of food. At all the other stations, “complete order” was restored - there is now a rolling ball, like in Kaliningrad … People are saved only by Chinese “bum packages”: noodles drenched in boiling water.

Why do you need railway special forces?

Previously, the police kept order at the train stations, now the passengers are greeted by the formidable mordovorov "railway special forces" - guards in beautiful black uniforms and caps, like the New York police. We set a framework and complicated the entry-exit system. For example, at the Belorussky railway station you have to enter through some doors, and exit completely through others. And nothing that people have to write circles with heavy suitcases. This is, allegedly, in the name of their own safety. In fact, there is more ostentation here than a real struggle for security, because terrorists here are blowing up railways, not train stations. This is well understood in all European countries, where there are also terrorist attacks on transport. Therefore, no one creates "railway special forces" at the expense of passengers. And security is monitored by the relevant law enforcement agencies, of which we have more than enough.

Perhaps the formidable militarized guard was created in Russian Railways for other purposes. If the aggravation of the political situation in Russia and the struggle of the clans come to the point of shooting, then the "railroad special forces" can become a very important argument in solving problems by force. After all, this is essentially a whole army of well-trained people! We must not forget that the current head of Russian Railways used to serve in the KGB-FSB. So the "railway special forces" are recruited, most likely, from experienced retirees of this particular federal service …

Where are consumer advocates looking?

There are several reputable consumer rights organizations in Russia. But something is not audible that at least one of them would stand up for the railway passengers. Why? Indeed, millions suffer from “crazy” tariffs and no less “crazy” service. It is also unclear why numerous regulatory authorities, say, the respected Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, will not conduct an audit at Russian Railways and find out for what reasons railway tickets in Russia are five times more expensive than in Ukraine, and even twice as expensive as in Italy.

What prevents clarity? Maybe just the fact that Russian Railways in Russia is as much a “sacred cow” as Gazprom?