DUSHANBE, June 9, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajik Railways intends to lower passenger fares on long-distance trains beginning on June 15.
The source at Tajik Railways says they will lower fares on the Dushanbe-Moscow train by 15 percent. According to him, current prices are 966 somoni (equivalent to 220 U.S. dollars) for a reserved seat in carriage class and 1,224 somoni (equivalent to 278.8 U.S. dollars) for travel in a compartment on this route.
The decision to lower fares for the long-distance trains follows decrease in rail transit tariffs set by Russia and Uzbekistan. “Thus, Uzbekistan has lowered rail transit tariffs by 15 percent and Russia has lowered the rail transit tariffs by 25 percent,” said the source, “Besides, we hope that the decrease in ticket prices will promote increase in passenger traffic on the long-distance routes.” He noted that over the first five months of this year, the passenger traffic on the rail routes to the Russian Federation has decreased by more than 50 percent compared to the same period of 2008.
At present Tajik Railways offers three routes to the Russian Federation (Dushanbe-Moscow, Kulob-Moscow, Khujand-Saratov) and four domestic routes (Dushanbe-Konibodom, Qurghon Teppa-Konibodom, Dushanbe-Pakhtaobod and Qurghon Teppa-Kulob).
In the meantime, experts attribute significant decrease in the passenger traffic on the long-distance routes to outflow of Tajik labor migrants from Russia and Kazakhstan. Moreover, passenger fares on the flight Dushanbe-Moscow are just a little more expensive than fares for travel in a compartment on the rail route from Dushanbe to Moscow.
