Ticket Hunting on Ukrzaliznytsia Trains: How Resellers Ruin Ukrainian Passengers

Ukrainian passengers face serious difficulties when purchasing railway tickets, as 'Ukrzaliznytsia' travel documents disappear from sale almost instantly after the start of sales. This issue has been reported by users on the internet.

According to passengers, tickets are actively bought up not by ordinary travelers, but by speculators who use automated programs and fake accounts. After obtaining tickets, resellers sell them at significantly inflated prices - 2-3 times higher than the nominal price. Those that remain unsold are returned a day before the train's departure.

As a result of this situation, residents of the eastern part of the country have been particularly affected. For example, purchasing tickets from Kharkiv to Odessa, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk before August 10 is nearly impossible. Tickets for dates after August 11 have not yet been made available for sale.

'And this has been happening for more than one year. For example, it is impossible to leave Kharkiv for Odessa, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk before August 10. And tickets for the 11th are still not on sale. The peak of such disorder occurs during the summer season,' shared one passenger.

An Ukrainian's Experience with the Inability to Purchase Tickets

One Ukrainian, Anna Melamed, shared her unsuccessful attempt to buy tickets to Lviv on Facebook, even though there are many trains in that direction. She tried to buy them 20 days before departure.

'It is impossible to purchase tickets from Ukrzaliznytsia - not one ticket for any train to Lviv 20 days before the date! Tracking in the app only helped to understand that sales were open for the desired date, but the site crashed! After 3 hours, there are no tickets! Oh, no, I’m lying - just one ticket! But there are dozens of trains to Lviv. How are you buying tickets?' she recounted.

Complaints have appeared online from Ukrainians about problems with purchasing railway tickets due to the active activities of speculators and rapid ticket sales. Passengers report that even several weeks before the trip, some routes become nearly inaccessible due to the lack of travel documents for sale, complicating travel planning and making the ticket purchasing process challenging and almost impossible.