It is cheaper to travel to Europe by plane rather than by train

A trip from Minsk to Amsterdam and back costs 180 euro more if you go by train rather than by plane. The deputy director general of “Belavia” company Ihar Charhinets claims that the tendency of making aviation cheaper than railways is observed throughout the whole Europe:

“There are such tendencies, especially if you look at Europe: the prices of flights to neighbouring countries often differ greatly from express-trains tickets. This tendency is gradually developping here too”.

You will only save 5 euro if you take a train to Prague instead of a plane.
Charhinets: “Our return ticket to Prague costs 228 euro – this is the tariff. You should add airport tallage to it and get 248 euro, this is the final price for passengers. The minimal price of a return ticket to Berlin with tallage is 214 euro. A return ticket to Amsterdam costs 298 euro”.

Besides standard tariffs, airlines have special offers. For example, you can buy two tickets to Europe at the price of one during holidays.

A Minsk train reaches Amsterdam in one day, 5 hours and 10 minutes while a plane can do it in 2.5 hours. Why travel by train if you can save both time and money if you board a plane? The deputy director general of “Belavia” thinks that railways are not going to lose passengers. There will always be people afraid of flying.

Charhinets: “European railways are better developed in comparison with ours and people stay as they are offered more comfort. Sometimes a railway station is close to somebody’s house and you always have to spend some time trying to reach an airport… many people are simply afraid of flying. I cannot say that European railways are dying out”.

Are railways going to lower prices? ERB has asked the Belarusian railway Administration about it. The head of the passenger service Uladzimir Stolyar says the the prices are based on tariffs on the territory of other countries so the change of price cannot be one-sided:

“The Belarusian railway cannot influence the cost of travels alone. The international tariff formation includes the cost of tickets in Belarus and in other countries. However, every country creates its own tariffs”.

Furthermore, 90% of railway trips abroad are to Russia and Ukraine. At the moment it is cheaper to take the train going to these countries. That is why lower prices for flights are unlikely to affect the Belarusian railway a lot. Passenger tariffs of the railway are unprofitable even in international relations, says Mr. Stolyar:

“We use the system in order to decrease losses in comparison with Russian and Ukrainian railways. Summer prices are higher as the number of passengers increases if compared with autumn and winter. It is done to distribute the passenger flow a bit – to relief the strain in summer and move it to autumn and winter”.

There are also discounts for trips by train if you travel as a group of 10 and more people.

Stolyar: “There is an international passenger tariff for the CIS and Baltic states which includes a number of discounts.  A group consisting of 10-24 people travelling to a distance of up to 2000 kilometers will get a 10% discount. If there are more than 24 people in the group the discount will total 15%”.
The biggest discount of 30% can be given to a group of more than 24 people travelling for a distance farther than 2000 kilometers.

An ERB journalist has tried to buy tickets to Prague with a discount. According to the reference service, a group ticket for one person will be 90 thousands cheaper. However, she did not manage to save 90 thousands – it turned out that all the people should be from one organization and the organization should write an appeal for a group ticket. Otherwise, you will have to pay the full price.