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As of October 1, prices on Moscow’s public transport rose significantly. A journey on overland transport, such as buses, trolleybuses or trams has jumped from 4 to 7 roubles. Any passenger buying their ticket from the driver instead of the special ticket booths scattered all over the city will now have to fork out 10 roubles (it used to be 5). And if anyone daring to risk the wrath of the city’s ticket inspectors happens to get collared, the fine is the princely sum of …10 roubles!
There is a famous saying that the harshness of Russia’s laws is compensated by the relaxed attitude to their implementation. It now looks as if the Moscow authorities have decided to change all that by introducing some bizarre rules.
Even before the latest changes many Muscovites chose not to buy tickets for public transport, and it had nothing to do with a rebellious spirit – it was just cheaper. When the fine was two times higher than the ticket, many people calculated that the odds of meeting an inspector were less then half and would end up paying fines now and again, in turn supporting a rather large army of inspectors.
Curiosity got the better of us here at Gazeta.Ru and we decided to ask the Moscow City Transport Committee to comment on the recent price changes. A source in the committee confirmed that the fine for travelling without a ticket was 10 roubles, as before. The source went on to say that the municipal government had prepared a document approving a fine of 100 roubles back in June of this year. However, for unspecified reason, the bill has not been adopted. And, as the head of the committee’s bus department Anatoly Nazarov told us, it will not be adopted until January next year.
Until then, the committee has decided to put a conductor on every bus, trolleybus and tram in the city. They hope this will make passengers pay and remove the temptation of travelling for free. It means the transport department will get more money, as now people won’t be paying fines but buying tickets – meaning the ticket inspectors suddenly lose their source of income, Nazarov said.
There was no immediate comment from the inspectors… For the moment, at least, they seem to have disappeared.
(10 roubles = 0.32 Euros / $US)
Dmitry Kubikov, Gazeta.Ru
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