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Vacation tickets sold out in Moscow train stations
June 9, The holiday season has begun, and the biggest shortage in the country is tickets on southbound trains. According to the Moscow Railroad, during the three months of summer, more than 10 million Muscovites, residents of Moscow Region and transit passengers will head for the sun and sea along their rails.
Ticket buying has become more civilized since scalpers were replaced by tour operators, and the fees have become more reasonable. Nonetheless, almost all tickets for the Black Sea are sold out for July.
The summer ticket shortage is a longtime affliction. In Soviet times, the madding crowd of citizens anxious to get to the sea attacked the ticket counters and broke against "no tickets" signs as if against a wave breaker. Scalpers, who crowded around the ticket counters in huge packs, “made friends” with the buyers and offered tickets at twice their price. Today’s tour operators sell tickets over the Internet. They demand less than the old hundred-percent commission, satisfied with 200 or 300 rubles. But for those who are trying to vacation economically at a Russian resort, that is a hefty sum anyway. The Moscow Railroad has added 15 extra passenger trains and extra cars to regularly scheduled trains. They have declared war one more time on tickets scalpers and report that 70% of all tickets are sold openly. But nothing has changed. Tickets for popular Caucasus and Crimea destinations are snapped up in advance.
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Photo: Ilya Pitalev
