Urgently to Crimea? Upper berths only...
ERB correspondent found this out from the ticketing offices at the railway terminal in Minsk when he tried to buy a ticket to the resort town of Simferopol for June 16.
Ticket officer: “For June 16, we have one upper side seat in the second-class car.”
But she immediately quieted our correspondent and gave some tips for the future.
Ticket officer: “You need to book beforehand if you want to get good seats. Yet, it is still possible to buy just several days ahead of departure.”
Thus, it is better to schedule your travel date and take care about getting better seats 45 days prior to departure. This is exactly when the railways start selling tickets.
Alternatively, you could accumulate patience and try to book tickets over the phone (dial 151) and then buy them out within three days. One condition is that you need to have a steel patience. This reporter spent almost 4 hours to get through. Another option is to line up for preliminary ticket offices.
Effective from May 18, the Belarus Railways introduced a new service – booking and ticketing through the internet. But the railways’ spokeswoman Tacciana Bondarava was sincere enough to admit that the system was still to improve.
“We are just testing this new service, which often has different flaws. It is a new service both for us and for travelers. Yet, we have been officially promoting this service since May 18,” she told our radio.
No doubt, the internet, the telephone and preliminary booking offices are good things. But they will not become a panacea, if there is simply a lack or trains for the “hot” destinations. Tacciana Bondarava maintains that the Belarus Railways have done all they could.
“The Belarus Railways have transferred part of the trains for the most popular southern destinations into the fast-train category, e.g. 129/130 Brest-Simferopol, 135/136 Minsk-Evpatoria, 139/140 Minsk Simferopol. We have also changed the routes of the fast train 37/37 Minsk-Adler, sending it now through Ukraine. The route is now 542 km shorter and 15 hours and 42 minutes faster,” Bondarava said.
There is yet another option, which could suit the best those who failed to get even a side berth in the second-class or those who enjoy connections or those who would like to spend a day in Kiev. There is a daily train No86 to the Ukrainian capital, arriving Kiev at 0856. If you still have enough strength for vacations, you could do some sightseeing. From Kiev, there is no problem to connect to the Crimea.
When we asked the Belarus Railways why it was impossible to run more additional trains to the Crimea, the Minsk station chief Igar Lapianok was very brief: no technical possibilities. He said that dozens of trains were now running from all the major cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States, making it impossible to squeeze in something extra.
The Belarus Railways spokeswoman Tacciana Bondarava calmed us down at the end of the interview.
“Nobody has ever been left out. All could be able to depart and arrive,” she said.
P.S. On June 11 our correspondent tried again to dial 151 and got through quite quickly (within 40 minutes). Besides, he was even lucky to get a lower seat in the first-class car. So, if it is not a big deal for you when to travel, you could count not only on a side second-class seat.
