Domestic fares for passenger train travel in Belarus will not be increased for now

May 24, Minsk / Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA /. There are no plans to increase domestic fares for passenger trains in Belarus in the near future. This was announced today at a press conference in Minsk by Vladimir Stolyar, Head of the Department for Coordination of Station Operations of the Passenger Service of Belarusian Railways, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. "Domestic tariffs will not change in the near future, the current level will be maintained," said the representative of Belarusian Railways, specifying that no increase is planned for the summer period. At the same time, he recalled that tariffs for domestic passenger railway transportation are determined by the Ministry of Economy. In addition, no sharp increase in fares is planned for international passenger trains. "If the exchange rate of the Swiss franc, to which international tariffs for trains to the CIS and Baltic countries are pegged, and the exchange rate of the euro, to which tariffs for long-distance trains are pegged, do not change, then no sharp changes in fares are expected," Vladimir Stolyar said. "Last year, Belarusian Railways did not increase prices on its own; the price increase occurred solely due to the sharp rise in the exchange rate of the Swiss franc and the euro." "We use a flexible tariff regulation system by periods of the year; for example, with Russian Railways, there are 21 periods," the specialist added. "In summer, the cost of travel is slightly higher than in the autumn-winter period." Answering a question from journalists about how Belarus's accession to the Single Economic Space will affect train fares, Vladimir Stolyar noted that changes will occur, but this is a very distant prospect. "Something will change, but it is too early for us to talk about it today. The goal of moving away from cross-subsidization is unequivocally pursued," he said. According to the specialist, most international passenger railway transportation is profitable today, while domestic transportation is unprofitable, but it is socially significant and fares for it are kept down. According to the results of January-April of this year, Belarusian Railways transported over 28 million passengers, which is 17.7% higher than in January-April of the previous year. In the specified period, local passenger trains carried 30.3% more passengers than in the same period of 2011, and suburban trains and city line trains carried 16.9% more. Passenger transportation in international traffic increased by 5.6%. In 2011, almost 89 million people used railway transport services, which is 6.5% higher than in 2010. Passenger turnover in 2011 increased by 4.8% compared to the previous year. The trend of passenger turnover growth continued this year: according to the results of January-April, it increased by 16% compared to the four months of 2011. -0-