No time for Russian trains

Summary

28 September 2012

The Russian state railway company has had to postpone selling tickets for all international services due to depart after October the 28th. It's because nobody in the country yet knows whether the clocks will change to winter time at the end of next month. Last year Russia ended the bi-annual time change. This year it is considering returning to the summer time/winter time system. But no decision has yet been made.

Report

Imagine trying to timetable cross-border train services without knowing just a month before, whether the clocks are going to change. That's the situation that RZhD, the Russian state railway company faces.

The company runs trains to - among other places - Ukraine and Finland. Both of those countries will switch back to winter time on October the 28th. But Russia abandoned the bi-annual clock change last year, choosing to stay on summer time throughout the winter months.

If that was certain to be true this year too, things would be easier for RZhD, and for the airlines for that matter. But still, with only a month to go, nobody knows whether Russia will switch to winter time on October the 28th or remain on permanent summer time. So RZhD has announced that it will be selling no tickets for international services after the end of October, until the government makes a decision one way or another.

Vocabulary

cross-border

international

the clocks

the times

faces

has to deal with

abandoned

gave up

bi-annual

twice a year

summer time

a temporary time that has been added by an hour to give more daylight in the afternoon

permanent

fixed

one way or another

to make the plan official or to reject it