The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) will make a complete switch to online sale of tickets for the train No. 67/68 (Kyiv-Warsaw), which is its most popular train, on 10 November to counter fraudsters and speculators and simplify access to tickets for passengers.
Ukrzaliznytsia announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the statement, the company has increased its international transport volume nine-fold, compared with the volume before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, by launching five new services to Europe. The direct Kyiv-Warsaw train remains the most popular, the company said. According to the company, there is a shortage of seats on this route despite a 2.5-fold increase in the number of seats because the number of RIC wagons that can be used on trains to the Polish capital by changing wheel pairs is limited.
"The number of cases in which our passengers have fallen victim to speculators/fraudsters who resell tickets in person or on their social media pages has increased. In addition, cases of forgery of travel documents have been uncovered. To avoid this and ensure maximum transparency, Ukrzaliznytsia will introduce several measures to regulate the sale of tickets for the Warsaw train on 10 November," the statement said.
Booking clerks will no longer sell these tickets in the old, "manual" format: there will be no need to stand in lines and "hunt" for tickets, and the railway will track and block speculators through a transparent online channel, the company added.
Online ticket sales for Kyiv-Warsaw and Warsaw-Kyiv trains will begin at 08:00 20 days before the travel date, ensuring equal conditions for all passengers.
Kyiv-Warsaw train tickets purchased online can only be returned by filing a claim at the ticket office at a train station. This allows Ukrzaliznytsia to prevent fraudsters from mass purchasing tickets online with the help of programmed bots and later exchanging them for the corresponding registered tickets.
"The number of tickets for Kyiv-Warsaw and Warsaw-Kyiv trains that a single person can purchase online will be limited to four per booking. ‘Bot’ accounts that automatically book several tickets simultaneously will be blocked automatically and irreversibly by our IT system," Ukrzaliznytsia said.
