Photo from UNIAN
Since late summer of 2018, Ukrainians have been traveling much more frequently to the European Union, stats say.
Ukrainian state-owned railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) has shrunk the number of trains running to Russia due to falling demand.
"The decrease in railway services to Russia is due to the rapid decline in passenger traffic between the [two] countries. In 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia took to Russia 772,900 passengers, which was almost 20% down from 2017," the company's press service said on February 5.
In particular, starting February 5, 2019, trains 24/23 Odesa-Moscow-Odesa and 20/19 Kharkiv-Moscow-Kharkiv will depart every other day instead of a daily schedule, the report said.
According to statistics, since late summer of 2018, passengers have been traveling much more frequently to the European Union. "From August to the end of the past year, the number of passengers transported by Ukrzaliznytsia to the EU grew by 10% from that served in direction to the Russian Federation. In total, 362,900 passengers were transported to the EU and back from August 2018 to January 2019, against 329,400 passengers transported to Russia and back within the same period," the press service added.
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Ukrzaliznytsia experts predict a further reorientation of Ukraine's passenger traffic toward the European Union.
In 2018, direct trains and trailing cars running to Russia from Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Kremenchuk were canceled, the company said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry had been considering a full halt to railway communication with the Russian Federation.