The other day Dave went to buy train tickets for a quick trip to Kiev, and found that train tickets had almost doubled in price. A one-way ticket used to cost $12.50, now it costs $21.50. We went to our Russian lesson directly after buying the tickets, and broke the news to Marina, which provoked an outburst of political frustration. She said she heard the minister of transport say in an interview that Ukraine’s tickets are the cheapest in Europe, so that justifies the price hike. That may be true, but Ukraine’s salaries are also probably the lowest in Europe. She went on to vent about the political “circus” currently taking place in the government. March 26 was parliamentary elections. Three parties got significant chunks of votes, so they have to form coalitions. That was supposed to take a month, but at that point they were still fighting about who will align with who. Meanwhile, not much got done in the government. Marina says it’s because most of the politicians are really businesspeople who got into politics simply to gain some influence in order to increase their profits. So no one could agree, because everyone is out for himself. Since then, however, we’ve learned that there has been a coalition formed with the West-leaning parties, including the current president’s “orange” party. Maybe now some progress can be made.
By the way, we’ve since learned that the government has been meaning to increase train ticket prices for a long time – prices haven’t gone up in six years – and has just now gotten around to it. One reason given was the March elections. Last year the Ukrainian railroad company lost nearly $500 million dollars, because they were subsidizing the cost of train transport. Tickets are expected to increase another 30 percent next year.
Laura
