Ministry of Transport agrees with human rights groups over named railway tickets
The First Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Volodymyr Korniyenko has stated that his Ministry is against the re-introduction of the system where railway tickets have a person’s name on them. He said that they had asked passengers and found that 80% were against the proposed change. “The passengers are against it, and we support them”. Mr Korniyenko added that there was no ticket touting at the moment and there was no point to introducing named tickets.
Mr Korniyenko also said that Ukrainian Railways were working hard on introducing electronic tickets, and hope by the second half of the year, June or July, to start using the same electronic tickets as on airlines.
Ukrainian Railways had previously said that they supported the proposal from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reinstate the sale of tickets with names printed in connection with cases of international terrorism. The system whereby proof of identification was needed, and names added, was abolished in November 2007.
On 19 April 2010 the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and 48 other civic organizations sent an appeal against the reintroduction of named tickets to the Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs. The letter can be read here http://helsinki.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1271166079 and below.