Russian Railways has suspended the sale of tickets for reserved seat and general long-distance carriages for 2018. Sales will resume only when the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) decides on tariffs for transportation in these cars. It is expected next week.
As soon as the decision is made, the demand for transportation in second-class carriages during the New Year holidays will be fully satisfied, Russian Railways notes. In the meantime, you can buy tickets for compartments and SV coaches for 2018.
The decision to suspend the sale of tickets for reserved seats and common carriages for more than 45 days was not made by chance. If in past years the FAS decided to index the fare in this segment to the inflation rate (in 2018 by 3.9 percent, focusing on the inflation forecast), now it proposes to reduce tariffs by 10 percent in relation to 2017. And it turns out that those who bought reserved seat tickets at the beginning of 2018 60 days before Russian Railways stopped sales, bought them at a higher price than at the rate offered by the FAS. Previously, passengers, on the contrary, won by buying tickets at the old price.
Since December 2016, Russian Railways opens sales in 60 days. But by order of the Ministry of Transport, the decision must be made before November 17. The department set such terms, focusing on the fact that ticket sales for long-distance trains open 45 days before departure, and not 60. The FAS was guided by the same period.
In the future, Russian Railways intends to open ticket sales 120 days before the train leaves.
And in the future, Russian Railways plans to open ticket sales 120 days before the train leaves. It turns out that either the order of the Ministry of Transport will have to be revised, or tickets for reserved seats will be sold on the first days of next year in only 45 days.
The FAS itself proposed to reduce the cost of tickets, focusing on the aviation market, where prices fell by 10 percent this year. However, there are no regulated tariffs in the aviation market, there are other pricing laws. And the cost of an air ticket has been marking time for several years (on average for a year), experts say. Now it is 6,000 rubles, Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the AviaPort branch agency, said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
It is unlikely that this figure will change until the end of this year. The highest prices for air tickets are traditionally in August. And if we compare the cost of a flight during the winter holidays with August, then it will be lower. If with November, when there is a lull, then higher. During these winter holidays, airlines may start dumping, the source of Rossiyskaya Gazeta believes. After the collapse of Transaero, they gained a large number of aircraft. They now have something to load in the summer (flights to Turkey), but there is no way to use them in the winter (flights to Egypt have not opened). Therefore, it turns out that in November the cost of air tickets drops significantly.
According to the head of the Ministry of Transport Maxim Sokolov, we can talk about a 10 percent reduction in the cost of reserved seat tickets if a mechanism is found that will allow the company not to lose money. Previously, there was a cross-subsidization model, when the profit from freight traffic was used to cover losses incurred in the transportation of passengers. But the government decided to abandon it. And now passenger transportation should not be unprofitable either. Experts fear that in this case the carrier will compensate for the low cost of a reserved seat and shared carriages at the expense of higher prices for tickets in compartment and SV.
By the way, according to Russian Railways, 97.85 million passengers were transported in October 2017, which is 3.9 percent more than in October 2016. Of these, 89.96 million passengers were sent in suburban traffic (plus 3.8 percent), in long-distance transportation - 7.9 million (plus five percent).
Have you ever traveled on Russian Railways trains?
Have you bought train tickets?
Have you ever asked for a ticket at the box office (or through the Russian Railways website) for the required date and did not find seats on the train? Or find out that there are only reserved seats near the toilet?
Prudent people buy tickets in advance - several weeks in advance. But when they also find such a situation, they usually start to panic.
I will reveal to you one secret that will make your travel on Russian Railways trains more comfortable.
How do different people buy tickets?
Let's consider 3 scenarios:
1. Alarmists.
Train tickets start selling 45 days before departure.
BUT! A very small number of tickets are on sale in 45 days. These tickets are usually some of the worst. And nevertheless, they are all immediately sold out by alarmists who see that there are few tickets left on sale. As a result, the alarmists are happy - they grabbed the penultimate ticket in the reserved seat on the side.
2. Ordinary people.
An ordinary citizen realizes that it is time to buy a ticket a couple of weeks before the trip. He goes to the cashier, goes to the Russian Railways website and sees that the worst places are left: reserved seats near the toilet or a compartment of increased cost. Not wanting to go to the toilet, he buys a coupe of increased value. And I am happy that although I overpaid, he will go with comfort. Promising himself that next time he would take care of buying a ticket in advance. However, this promise will of course be forgotten.
3. Lucky ones
Some lucky ones remember that they need to go a couple of days in advance. And some are determined already right on the day of departure - for example, when the boss orders them to take time off. They fly to the station like a bullet and without a queue quietly buy for themselves the best place: either a good inexpensive compartment or a high-quality reserved seat at the most trump place. Sometimes they are still surprised that such places have not been sold out before them. But they explain this to themselves by the fact that they are always lucky in life.
Tickets do not go on sale immediately, but in small portions. Portions go on sale in a certain amount of time: 45, 30, 15, 10, 7, 3 and 1 days and one more portion one hour before departure!
The first tickets go on sale 45 days in advance. And this, as I wrote above, is only a small part of the places and, indeed, these are the worst places.
There is no need to rush to buy them.
The largest emissions of tickets on sale occur in 10 days and in the morning on the day of departure (or per day). Then you need to buy tickets.
Plus, the outburst that occurs in 3 days is sometimes large too, because it is during this period that it is decided whether to include additional wagons in the composition.
In general, the correct algorithm is:
- having realized in a couple of weeks that it is time for you to buy tickets, focus on the above periods of ticket sales and periodically (once a day, for example) monitor tickets on the RZD.RU website. If the tickets you need are not there now, just WAIT QUIETLY.
- when the tickets that suit you have appeared, buy them directly on the website.
PS / FYI:
- I knew the idea and used it earlier, but I found the timing of the release of tickets
And one more useful link with information on how the sale of tickets for trains passing through the territories belonging to different railway departments (for example, the Moscow-Kiev train) works.
Conclusion from there:
you should not buy tickets at a regular ticket office with a stupid cashier (which are the majority), but you need to buy tickets via the Internet or at a service center.
It is difficult to find a person who has never traveled by rail. Everyone had to buy train tickets at least once. Often, trips are planned in advance and many people try to purchase travel documents in advance in order to choose better places. What will be your surprise if buying a ticket for 3-4 weeks, you find that there are only seats at the toilet. Whether this can happen and whether it is worth panicking, we will figure it out further.
How are tickets purchased by different people?
Each person has his own principles and algorithms, how and when to buy tickets and what to do if the necessary seats are not available. But all people can be divided into several main categories.
Alarmists
Sales of travel documents start 45 days before the day of the train departure. Very prudent people from the first days of sales rush to buy tickets, but find that there are only seats near the toilets. In a panic, they buy what they have and remain very pleased with the fact that they managed to snatch the last places. Although in fact the picture is far from the truth.
The fact is that at the start (45 days in advance) the worst tickets go on sale, for example, near the toilets, and even then in small quantities, so there is a feeling that the tickets are all sold out.
Ordinary people
Most people usually get their travel documents in a couple of weeks. Having looked on the Russian Railways website or by going to the ticket office at the station, they may find that there are only bad places near the toilet, or expensive comfortable compartments. If funds allow, a person chooses a compartment and remains very pleased that he managed to buy a ticket. He renounces the next time to necessarily purchase travel documents in advance, but this is quickly forgotten.
Lucky
This category includes people who, in just a couple of days, remember that they need to go, or people who make unplanned trips. At the first opportunity, for example, with a sudden weekend, they run to the station for tickets, and sometimes make a purchase and the day of departure. They are always lucky, and they can buy comfortable seats in a reserved seat or affordable tickets in a compartment.
A few secrets
Not all people know that tickets do not go on sale all at once, but in small portions. Typically, emissions occur in 45, 30, 15, 10.7, 3 and 1 days. But first, they sell the worst seats near the toilet, and closer to the time of departure, affordable and comfortable tickets become.
The largest receipts occur in 10 days and a day, so the most optimal period for the purchase of travel documents. Also a large selection may be available in 3 days. During this period, the need for additional wagons will usually be determined.
If you want to buy a ticket for a specific place and date, do not rush to do so. Track the appearance of travel documents on our website and buy the options you like. In addition, by making purchases over the Internet, you can save your time, and sometimes money (when making a payment online, sometimes a discount is provided).
