Kyiv-Warsaw Rail Ticket Sales Online Only to Combat Fraud – Kyiv Post

From Nov. 10, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia will sell tickets for the highly popular Kyiv – Warsaw train (No. 67/68) exclusively online. This is to prevent scammers and speculators from reselling tickets by hand or via social networks.

With Ukrainian air travel off limits due to the on-going war, passenger traffic on the railways has increased significantly, especially to Poland and other European Union countries.

“There has been an increase in the number of cases where our passengers become victims of speculator fraudsters who resell tickets by hand or via social networks. Cases of forged travel documents have also been detected,” Ukrazaliznytsia stated on its web page on Nov. 9.

Additionally, the Ukrainian railway company has created a special online booking channel for group bookings, official delegations and requests from diplomatic and government agencies, to be serviced exclusively by the relevant ticket office.

Ticket sales will start at 08:00, 20 days before the travel date. Also, the number of tickets that can be purchased for the Kyiv – Warsaw – Kyiv route will be limited to four tickets per order.

“The process for returning tickets after purchasing online must follow the claims procedure at the station’s ticket office. This is designed to stop the mass purchase of tickets online by bots, and then exchanged for registered tickets for passengers found by fraudsters,” – the message says.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrzaliznytsia has evacuated millions of passengers from the line of fire. Employees of Ukrainian railways often risk their lives when traveling to the front line. Since Feb. 24, a total of 54 rail workers have been killed and another 64 wounded, while three remain in captivity.