KIEV, December 9. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) will keep all its former rail routes to Russia intact despite a decision made by Russian Federal Passenger Company to cancel rail service to Ukraine for a year's time as of December 14, 2014, a representative of the Ukrzaliznytsia's press service told TASS on Tuesday. "Ukrzaliznytsia will continue rail service in winter the way it does now," the spokesman said.
At present, 19 trains operate on route from Ukraine to the Russian territory, including two trains which run to Crimea. But, the most crowded train No. 1/2 Kiev-Moskva will run every other day instead of daily service, the spokesman said.
The Russian Federal Passenger company, which is an affiliate of the Russian Railways, will cancel railway service to several CIS states, including Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan as of December 14, 2014, a spokesman for the Federal Passenger Company (FPC) told TASS on Monday. The reason is poor profits from passenger transportation to these countries by rail, he explained.
"Earlier, a schedule of passenger transportations had been endorsed in summer, while from now on the train schedule will be adopted in December. Therefore, the decision to cancel railway service to certain countries will remain in effect for a year as a minimum. Nonetheless, a loophole in the train schedule has remained. A train service might be appointed if necessary to a destination taken off winter train schedule," the FPC spokesman said.
The decision to cancel rail service to the above-mentioned countries does not apply to Belarus, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Abkhazia, he said.