The problem of the shortage of tickets for Ukrzaliznytsia trains is back on the agenda: Ukrainians complain that they cannot buy tickets for both domestic and international flights, blaming the problem on fraud. Ukrzaliznytsia says it is continuing to fight against fraud and is actively cooperating with OLX to make it impossible to place tickets for sale there. UZ reported this in response to a request 
“Ukrzaliznytsia cooperates with the OLX website, whose administrators have developed a special system that makes it impossible to place any ads for the sale of railway tickets on it. Information about persons reselling travel documents for passenger trains, including international trains, is transferred to law enforcement agencies in accordance with the established procedure,” UZ said.
Ukrzaliznytsia stressed that at the end of 2023, in the next update of the UZ app, users were able to verify their accounts using Diia.Signature.
“This made it possible to expand the range of possible actions for verified users, and also helped to more systematically prevent cases of fraud and the use of deliberately forged documents when issuing (selling, reselling) travel documents for passenger trains, including international traffic,” Ukrzaliznytsia said.
This experience proved to be successful, so UZ scaled up the project: from 1 August 2024, the list of flights for which ticket sales are available only after user verification through Diia.Signature was expanded. Similar verification is already applied to high-demand flights to and from Warsaw and Vienna.
“This decision is a temporary measure for the peak period of transportation to overcome the abnormal activity of resellers, as currently Ukrzaliznytsia specialists block up to 50 attempts to buy tickets in bulk per day. However, without verification through Diia.Signature, ticket speculators can simply change their phone number and continue their business. This, in turn, slows down the system and prevents bona fide passengers from planning their journey with certainty,” they said.
Despite Ukrzaliznytsia’s statements about fighting against bribery and cooperation with OLH, the editorial board of
For example, on 14 August , a ticket for the Lviv-Zaporizhzhia train was put up for sale on OLX.
Also, as reported earlier, social media users say that there are special chats where bribe-takers sell train tickets.
As for the technical failures of the UZ app, which also prevent Ukrainians from buying tickets, Ukrzaliznytsia emphasises that this problem is being addressed by its technical staff.
“Due to the high popularity among users, the Ukrzaliznytsia app had some technical issues during peak hours, as there are about 10,000 active sessions every second during the peak travel season. To stabilise the travel document sales system, regulate the operation of the application and reduce peak loads on the systems, IT specialists changed the opening time of sales for international trains,” UZ said.
However, social media users point out that the app continues to freeze after the opening of ticket sales and, accordingly, it is still extremely difficult to purchase tickets due to technical failures.
Author: Alyona Kaplina