NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
The tickets are few, the process is slow…
Train tickets are the new breadline in 2010 Yerevan.
Like their komrades of the early 1990s queuing for loaves in the days of scarcity, residents eager to escape to the Black Sea for holiday gather as early as 5 a.m. at the railway station in Yerevan hoping to buy a ride to Batumi, Georgia.
Last summer, a special train service was opened to take holidaymakers on the 19 trip to the seaside. This year, it has become so popular that demand far exceeds supply – mostly because of a deal struck with travel agencies to make matters “convenient”.
On a mid-week days, Volodia Mkhitaryan, 48, reached the station at 5:00 a.m. A few hours later, however, he had lost hope that he would ever get the desired ticket.
“Can you imagine, so many people are gathered here, whereas the ticket clerks have come and announced that they would sell only 24 tickets. Where are the rest of the tickets? Ten carriages set off every day. What have they done with the tickets? They opened a ‘black market’, and sell the tickets at higher costs,” Mkhitaryan told ArmeniaNow.
In fact, the so-called, ‘black markets’ are the tourist agencies; and the South Caucasus Railways (SCR) CJSC signed a contract with them this year, allowing the agencies to include the rail tickets in their services (for a fee).
Vahe Davtyan, Head of SCR Press Service, told ArmeniaNow that the point of that contract is to make things easier for Armenian residents.
The majority of daily railway tickets have been bought by tourist agencies, and they re-sell the tickets for a price that’s considerably higher. For example, a ticket for a reserved seat in a second-class sleeping carriage for 7,000 drams ($19) at the station, costs 12,000 drams ($33) from one agency checked by ArmeniaNow.
Hopeful and disgruntled would-be ticket buyers say this violates the very aim of the rail service – to provide transport geared to budget-minded families. “Why should I go and buy tickets from agencies, if the state price fits my budget better? Are they trying to fool us? Who has allowed them to violate consumers’ rights?” Marietta Ghazaryan, 38, told ArmeniaNow.
Ticket lines were not unusual in previous years, however this year is exceptional due to the decrease in over-the-counter tickets available, causing days when the number of people in line exceeds 100.
On Wednesday ( July 21) even task force police officers were placed in the station to discourage confrontations.
It’s not enough that very few tickets are sold, but consumers must also endure a lengthy process because the tickets are filled in by hand, and later ticket clerks rewrite the ticket information in slow and precise fashion that is a throwback to Soviet redundancy.
The sale of each ticket takes about 25 minutes.
“Yes, the process is slow. We were planning to apply an electronic system for issuing tickets this year; however, we did not manage to. But today we had an important briefing, and by early August the situation will be improved,” Davtyan told ArmeniaNow.
South Caucasus Railways CJSC is the daughter company of Russian Railways OJSC; in 2008 the concession management of Armenian Railway CJSC was given to South Caucasian Railway for 30 years with a possibility of prolonging the contract for another 20 years.
Last year about 17,000 residents used the services of Yerevan-Batumi train. The Company hopes that the number may reach 25,000 this year (hopeful that there are so many patient people in Armenia).
Yet in April, when head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin arrived in Armenia to check on how the daughter company was operating, he stated with satisfaction that about $500 million investments made in Armenia had been used efficiently. “Efficiency” however seems hardly an apt result of what has occurred at Yerevan station.
Marat Khakov, First Deputy General Director of South Caucasus Railways, stated that the company is ready to launch the summer season with 12 renovated carriages with additional services: “newspapers and magazines, breakfast, different games, chess and backgammon boards will be provided; in other words, there will be purely homey atmosphere,” Khakov promised.
Nevertheless, 28-year-old Marine Kirakosyan would prefer a civilized manner of ticket sale to “additional services.”
“Instead of their additional services, they had better provided proper sale conditions. We face the same situation now that we used to face while buying ‘easy cards’ [pre-paid cell phone cards] a few years ago. They are simply making fools of our people,” Kirakosyan says with frustration.
English
Հայերեն
back to top 
Readers' comments
Read commented Article
Post a comment
Read all 1 comments
Comments are welcomed and encouraged. However, comments not pertaining to the topic or containing slander or offensive language will be deleted. You have to be registered to be able leave your comment. Sign in or Register now for free.