Why are train tickets so expensive? Media about Russian Railways

As promised, I made a topic. But the mod removed it :(
I'm posting it here. Shouldn't the work be wasted? :)
Briefly about air miles.
For each flight, airlines award award points. These are air miles. Their number is determined by the fare, class and flight distance. In some destinations, you can already make every sixth flight for free! To become a member bonus program, you need to fill out a special application form right on board and give it to the flight attendant, or register on the website online. Don’t be lazy to do this, even if you don’t plan to fly often. By the way, you can start accumulating miles without ever stepping foot on an airplane; you just need to create a co-branded account bank card with appropriate conditions. And then miles will be awarded for all purchases made using the card!!! Typically, one mile is counted for every dollar, euro or 30 rubles spent. Moreover, the higher the card status, the more miles will be credited to your personal account. For example, Alfabank gives MasterCard Platinum owners 1.5 miles for 30 rubles spent.
Air miles are awarded by most airlines around the world. In Russia it is Aeroflot, S7, Transaero. Aeroflot miles are of greatest interest. Because You can use them to buy tickets for many airlines that are members of the SkyTeam alliance. The number of Aeroflot bonus program participants is over 1.5 million people. The most common way to use your accumulated airline miles is to purchase airline tickets. You can buy an air ticket either in the name of the person who accumulated the miles or in the name of other persons. You can use your air miles to upgrade your flight class to fly business or first class instead of economy, with improved service when boarding and waiting for your flight. Some bonus program participants gain very a large number of miles and unable to spend them. Then there is a desire to sell air miles, which can be used for mutual benefit.
I have repeatedly bought tickets with miles and issued them to other people. This has become especially simple this year: a visit to the Aeroflot office is no longer required to sign an application for transferring miles. Now everything can be done in personal account. Based personal experience, I can say that the most profitable purchase using miles is buying business class tickets to the USA and Cuba. Considering the average cost of miles is 40-50 kopecks per mile, you get a business class ticket at the price of an economy class. If the goal is to save as much as possible, then there will probably be a fare from some airline, especially if it includes transfers, that will be cheaper than buying with miles. In this case, you can simply sell your air miles and pocket the difference :)
If anyone is interested, please contact me in a personal message - I’ll help :)
Or go to the website aviamili.umi.ru where you can buy and sell miles.

Have you ever traveled on Russian Railways trains?
Have you bought train tickets?

Have you ever asked at the ticket office (or through the Russian Railways website) for a ticket for the desired date and found no seats on the train? Or discover that there are only reserved seats left near the toilet?
Prudent people buy tickets in advance - several weeks in advance. But when they discover such a situation, they usually begin to panic.

I will tell 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 go on sale 45 days before departure.
BUT! A very small number of tickets go on sale within 45 days. These tickets are usually some of the worst. And yet, they are all immediately snapped up by panickers 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 ticket office, goes to the Russian Railways website and sees that the most bad places: reserved seat near the toilet or higher-priced compartment. Not wanting to drive near the toilet, he buys a higher-priced coupe. And I’m happy that, although I overpaid, I will travel in comfort. Promising himself that next time he will take care of buying a ticket in advance. However, this promise will certainly be forgotten.

3. Lucky
Some lucky people remember that they need to travel in a couple of days. And some are determined right on the day of departure - for example, when the boss allows you to take a day off. They fly to the station like a bullet and calmly buy their own essentials without waiting in line. the best place: either a good inexpensive coupe or a high-quality reserved seat in the trump spot. 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 anyway.

Tickets do not go on sale immediately, but in small portions. Portions go on sale for a certain amount of time: 45, 30, 15, 10, 7, 3 and 1 days and another portion an 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 releases of tickets on sale occur 10 days in advance and in the morning on the day of departure (or 24 hours). Then you need to buy tickets.

Plus, the release that occurs over 3 days is sometimes also large, because... It is during this period that it is decided whether to include additional cars in the train.

In general, the correct algorithm is:
- having realized in a couple of weeks that it’s time for you to buy tickets, focus on the above ticket sales periods and periodically (once a day, for example) monitor tickets on the RZD.RU website. If there are no tickets you need right now, then just WAIT QUIETLY.
- when tickets that suit you appear, buy them directly on the website.

PS/FYI:
- I knew and used the idea before, and I found the timing for the release of tickets

And one more useful link with information about how the sale of tickets for trains passing through territories belonging to different railway departments works (for example, the Moscow-Kyiv train).

Conclusion from there:
You shouldn’t buy tickets at a regular box office with a stupid cashier (which is the majority), but you need to buy tickets via the Internet or at a service center.

What to do if money is tight, but you really want to go on a trip?

On some trains, compartment tickets can be purchased for almost the price of a reserved seat.

Were you going to visit your relatives for the May holidays or on an excursion, but the crisis confused your plans, and it’s just a pity to spend your last money on tickets? Do not despair! The trip can be much cheaper than you think! Proceed like this:

Please guess the departure date. Depending on it, a ticket for the same train will cost less or, conversely, more than the tariff. It doesn’t matter when you buy it - a month or just a couple of days before departure. The cheapest trip will be on May 8 and 9; tickets for these days are generally sold at half price. But, for example, it is not profitable to plan a departure on May 5; tickets will cost more than the tariff. A reserved seat is by 5%, and a coupe by as much as 15%. How prices will change for other dates, check at the box office or look at the website www.pass.rzd.ru in the “Tariffs” section. If you need a ticket specifically for a date when tickets are expensive:

Pay attention to daytime trains and take a seat. It works out much cheaper this way! In addition, sometimes you can get a noticeable gain in time! For example, you can get from Moscow to Bryansk in a reserved seat car of a night train for 1,299 rubles. and the trip will take about an hour. And if you take a ticket for a seat on a daytime train, you will spend 476 rubles. Savings are more than 2 times! By the way, you will get there faster by this train - in 4 hours. 15 minutes. If the road is long and you want to get there, albeit cheaper, but with maximum comfort: Plan your trip in advance and buy a compartment ticket 45 days before departure.

The principle here is that the sooner you buy, the cheaper it will be! This is called dynamic pricing. For those who purchase them 45-40 days before the trip, discounts of up to 40% are available. But if you decide to travel in less than 15 days, the price increases by 5-10%. For example, a ticket in a compartment from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod will cost 2,046 rubles, and for the same train, but if purchased a few days before departure, you will have to pay 3,017 rubles. However, dynamic pricing does not work on all trains. Check with the railway ticket office or on the website. If none of the above methods work for you:

Keep an eye out for discounts and promotions! For example, now on some trains from Moscow to Volgograd, Penza, Cheboksary, Stary Oskol and back, when purchasing a reserved seat ticket there is a 20% discount. And if you take the top side seat, you will save 40% of the fare.

You won’t run into the ticket office with questions, so it’s best to keep track of the situation on the website www.pass.rzd.ru in the “Special Tariffs” and “News” sections.

By the way! Catch ticket sales organized by Russian Railways. Then there is a chance to leave at half price. Find information on the company website www.rzd.ru

How do ticket prices change throughout the year?

The cost of train tickets varies significantly throughout the year. It depends on the date of the trip. And the difference of just one day can significantly affect the fare. And not in better side. And if you buy several tickets at once, it will seriously hit your pocket. Therefore, when planning your vacation, try to take into account seasonal changes in the cost of train tickets. And keep in mind that the most expensive travel will be from July 13 to September 2. And the cheapest time to travel in summer will be from June 13 to June 28 (see the table below for all price fluctuations!)

Travel dates How does the price change?

"Basic tariff— this is the fare calculated for each direction and approved at the beginning of the year

the coupe is shrinking. Taking into account the time savings, air travel becomes much more profitable than rail travel.

This conclusion was reached by the online travel agency Biletix, having compared prices for air and train tickets for the most popular domestic Russian destinations. The difference in the cost of air and train tickets in the direction Moscow - St. Petersburg is 83 rubles, Moscow - Krasnodar - 127 rubles. For a choice in the direction Moscow - Mineralnye Vody, which costs 5,199 rubles, the passenger will have to overpay only 508 rubles, while the time savings will exceed a whole day.

According to some long-distance destinations significantly lower than train tickets. An air ticket Moscow - Vladivostok costing 12,050 rubles is 4,421 rubles less than a railway ticket costing 16,471 rubles, saving time of more than 6 days. The cost of an air ticket from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk costs 10,409 rubles below train ticket for 84 rubles.

Below are the prices presented in the system of the online travel agency Biletix, for air and taking into account all commissions and fees for the most popular Russian destinations.

“The volume of passenger air traffic is growing every year and in 2012 exceeded, according to preliminary data from the Federal Air Transport Agency, 70 million people. Significant growth in the passenger air transportation market is due, among other things, to the refusal of part of the population to use air travel. If the current situation in pricing of air and rail passenger transportation continues, this trend will only develop,” noted Biletix CEO Alexander Sizintsev.

*All prices are as of July 24, 2013 for one adult one-way ticket for departure on August 1 with all taxes and fees.

To the question Why are tickets so expensive? given by the author Vlad VIP the best answer is This is the result of the reform. -d. transport, which has been carried out in Russia since 2003, when the Ministry of Railways mutated into JSC Russian Railways. Before this, part of the losses from passenger transportation (and Passenger Transportation almost always unprofitable) was compensated by the so-called. cross-subsidization - part of the profit from freight transportation. During the reform, this principle was not only abandoned, but everything was done to make its implementation completely impossible. Freight transportation was given to private operators (who, of course, are not obligated to compensate anyone for anything), and long-distance passenger transportation was transferred to a subsidiary of Russian Railways called FPK. Thus, it was demonstrated that, firstly, passenger transportation is a purely commercial matter, Secondly, deal with losses yourself as you wish. In general, this is part of the ultra-liberal economic course that is consistently carried out in Post-Tsin Russia (it was carried out before, but not so harshly - apparently, the party past weighed heavily on Boris Nikolaich). Monetization of benefits, privatization of land, reform of the electric power industry “according to Chubais” - from the same opera. So the railway workers “get out”: 1) raise tariffs, 2) produce more branded trains, 3) increase the proportion of cars of more expensive categories in trains. For comparison, tariffs in Russia and other post-Soviet countries, where Railway works according to slightly different principles: Russia: Moscow - St. Petersburg (650 km): reserved seat 1312 rubles. minimumBelarus: Brest - Vitebsk (791 km): reserved seat 103,700 BYN. rub. = 355 RUR rub. Ukraine: Kharkov - Mariupol (608 km): reserved seat 77 hryvnia = 231 rubles. Kazakhstan: Astana - Semipalatinsk (829 km): reserved seat 2428 tenge = 465 rubles. Of course, in other CIS countries and the people are poorer, there, if the prices screw it up, no one will go anywhere at all. On the other hand, when it comes to sawing, there are no fewer specialists there than in Russia. On the other hand, compared to the “civilized world,” our prices are still quite reasonable. In Europe, for travel a distance equal to, say, the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg, you will have to pay around a hundred euros. In the USA, you will have to choose between a seat and a coupe, and a coupe will generally cost several times more than an airplane. Moreover, Amtrak is still unprofitable. 🙂

Answer from Divergent[guru]
Expensive - don't go, what's the problem? The price is determined by demand.

Answer from Oriy Komarov[guru]
The train is coming, we are going. .
But essentially: if we didn’t travel, the price would go down...
PS. Have all flights from Murmansk been cancelled?? ?
And to the question: “Where do people get so much money?” the answer is imposed: They earned it...
It's time for you to start earning...

Answer from Marg12[guru]
Maybe you can fill out the form and I’ll send you suggestions:

Answer from Tomatik[guru]
You've seen low prices, scroll through the search engine further, you will fall like a star, in shock.
“...if we didn’t travel, the price would go down...” is a dubious statement. They would cancel flights, as they did in Murmansk.

Answer from Iar-smeyan[guru]
1. Demand creates supply.
2. There are no competitors. And it won't.
Conclusion: pricing behaves as the owner wants.
“They would cancel the flights, as they did in Murmansk”....Or they would let them go once a week..

Answer from Sergey Mukhin[guru]
earn more and the price will not seem high

Answer from Andrey[guru]
That’s why Gebnyuk Yakunin needs another fur coat storage facility, now probably somewhere in Miami. And at BAM 2 you can make some money. Vlad, what kind of VIP are you if you don’t know how the bosses at the top make money and how much money they spend on their brother.

Answer from Black Angel[guru]
Come on, stop whining! Instead of whining, it would be better to find a better job, and not complain here. If you don’t like it, walk, they don’t make such prices out of the blue. 5500 I think is very cheap. If you don’t have enough money, go to the bank, get a loan and start your own business. And all these oh why don’t they think about us, why is everything so expensive - whining! It's time to understand that in life everyone is for himself, if you want to live, know how to spin. Whining and complaining will not add to your wallet. If 5500 is a lot... then how much do you want to ride for, dear friend? What price would suit you? 16 rubles, like on a minibus?: D

Answer from Secret[guru]
building an airport yourself, hiring dispatchers and security, buying planes and getting fuel, training flight crews, etc. is completely beyond our capabilities and our means.

Answer from Maria[guru]
What is 5 thousand rubles in our time? Boots. And even then they are not the best)) And then there is intercity transport. The costs are high.

Answer from Syr-Byr[guru]
when were tickets cheap?

Answer from Irina...[guru]
Turns out it's Kemerovo region. Yes it's cheap! For such a distance. You see, expensive is a relative concept. It’s expensive for YOU, but not for others. Now I suggest you look at the prices for trains in Europe or the USA. Just don’t choke) By the way, an air ticket in our country can cost as much as a train ticket, so don’t be surprised. This is such a paradox)

Answer from Џ [guru]
Crap! it is expensive?
we travel to St. Petersburg with our son, we spend 5-6 thousand on the road, so the journey is only 700 km
and you have 3500 km

Answer from Yovetlana Ryabova[active]
FOR WHOM IT’S EXPENSIVE AND FOR WHOM IT’S NOT. FEWER PEOPLE I KNOWN WENT SOMEWHERE THIS YEAR.

Answer from Yna....[guru]
but I don’t understand - I found 6 thousand, but this is nonsense... Why nonsense? Don't you know that air carriers have different tariffs and promotions? And also about the fact that air transport has long been cheaper than rail transport? Well, in that case, now you will know. Even with our abnormal prices for air tickets, this is true.
To most people in this category, air tickets for 10 thousand rubles seem to be an average price. It would be nice to find something cheaper :) But they know very well that they are much more expensive.
People are working. They make money. Everyone’s money is different, but if you want to travel, you need to look for this path, and not complain that everything is very, very bad. If you want to make your life more interesting (I’m not talking about traveling now), you can. But negativity towards those who earn more is not good.

Answer from Klavdiya Ryzhkova[guru]
You need to plan your trip in advance - if you track airfare prices in February, you can save a lot. It will be cheaper and faster than trains.