The Russian Railways (RZD) have changed compensation schemes for delays and some other mishaps of the Sapsan and Allegro trains. From now on, passengers are compensated on a basis of duration of delays in case the delay is attributable to the RZD or VR.
1. For any delay of 60-119 minutes, the passenger is entitled to receive compensation of 25% of the ticket price;
2. For a delay of 120 minutes and longer, the passenger gets refunded 50% of the ticket price.
A special compensation is envisaged for Allegro in case of replacement of the vehicle. As we reported, several times passengers were delivered to the destination by bus or by another train when the Allegro broke down due to technical problems or a fallen tree. In the event of vehicle replacement, 20% of the ticket price is compensated.
The compensation is paid by the carrier the passenger bought a ticket from.
You should claim your compensation within 30 work days since the date of travel by Allegro or 45 days by Sapsan. You can fill in a compensation application while on board and hand it over to a passenger car attendant or get it mailed. The carrier should answer within 30 work days since the date of the receipt of the application.
You are not entitled to compensation if a delay was caused by something outside the control of the carrier, severe weather, security reasons, etc.
Sapsan (produced by Siemens AG) is a high-speed train operating on the Moscow — St. Petersburg and Moscow — Nizhniy Novgorod lines. Travel time between Moscow — St. Petersburg is 4 hours, several departures a day are available. The number of passengers transported between Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2016 was 4.8 million, up 37.4% from 2015.
Allegro (produced by Alstom) is a high-speed train, it runs between St. Petersburg and Helsinki four times a day each way. Travel time is 3.5 hours. In 2016, it transported about 392.000 passengers, up 8.2% from 2015. It’s operated by Oy Karelian Trans, a JV of RZD and VR (www.vr.fi).
Website of the RZD: http://eng.rzd.ru
