Russian Railways proposed the introduction of a uniform quality service standards for passenger trains operating in the 1520 area. The announcement was made during the 71st meeting of the Council on Rail Transport of the Commonwealth.
Oleg Belozerov, the chairman of the Council and CEO of Russian Railways, instructed Council’s Commercial Passenger Commission to consider requesting the railway administrations to introduce uniform requirements for service classes and the standardisation of services on international passenger trains across the 1520 space.
The single quality standard would lead to the increase of rail passenger transport which currently face a 5.5% reduction, recorded in the first eight months of 2019, compared to the same period of 2018, and amounted to 12.4 million passengers.
Comparing to the 2018/2019 timetable, a 6-7% decrease was registered. At the same time, 10 years ago, 25 pairs of such trains and groups of carriages operated on international services between the member states.
“In addition to the cost of tickets and travel time, one of the important factors in falling competitiveness is the wear and tear of the fleet and the aging of passenger carriages. This means it is becoming impossible to obtain certification in accordance with the stricter requirements applying to trains in the “branded” category. As a result, passengers are deprived of comfortable travel conditions – which are among the main competitive advantages of passenger services,” Oleg Belozerov said.
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