Which, however, has already been discussed in various communities.
Russian Railways Holding will change the procedure for displaying arrival and departure times on travel documents for long-distance and suburban trains. From August 1, 2018, only local time will be indicated on railway tickets, which corresponds to the time zone of the passenger's departure, Russian Railways reported.
Currently, the forms are fixed Moscow time arrivals and departures, as well as local time.
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“For the convenience of passengers, the time of arrival and departure will be indicated on travel documents, specifying how many hours it differs from Moscow. Information on local arrival and departure times will also be displayed on information boards in trains, on platform signs and station electronic clocks.
That is, in fact, since August 1, 2018, the age-old tradition of Moscow time on Russian Railways is becoming a thing of the past. No, of course, all dispatching, service schedules and schedules will remain at the single Moscow time, but all this will no longer be visible to an ordinary passenger. It will be like in aviation, where dispatching is carried out according to UTC, but few passengers know about it.
Why did Russian Railways abandon this tradition? There are three main reasons for this, in my opinion.
Reason #1. Formal.
There is a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 01/08/1992 N 23 (as amended on 08/31/2011) "On the procedure for calculating time on the territory of the Russian Federation", the 5th paragraph of which reads:
"... the movement of railway, water and intercity road transport open for public use, as well as the operation of intercity telephone and telegraph communications on the territory Russian Federation produced according to Moscow time. Motion air transport produced in UTC. Informing the population about the work of transport and means of communication is carried out according to the time set in the given area."
That is, there is a government decree that must be followed. This is the law. The only strange thing is that, as it turned out, Russian Railways ignored him for more than 25 years ... However, in Russia there are a lot of strange things with the laws ...
Reason number 2. Fight for the client.
Many will say: "Yes, where is the struggle, the passenger needs speed and comfort, and what time is in the schedules - do not care." For a regular passenger, yes, they are used to this feature of Russian Railways and almost never get confused. But those who rarely use the railway may not know about Moscow time in the schedule. Having made a mistake once, he, of course, will receive a negative, and the likelihood that he will use the railway next time becomes lower.
But it is from these small bricks that the general prestige of the railway is formed.
It is not for nothing that most suburban companies that have Passenger Transportation- not a small side activity, but the main income, they switched to local time in the schedules at the beginning of the 2000s. Moreover, they even show dependence: the better things are with suburban transportation in the region, the earlier they switched the schedule to local time. And vice versa, in regions where local authorities and Russian Railways have long abandoned the suburbs, Moscow time has been preserved in the schedule of the remaining electric trains to this day. This is, for example, the Trans-Baikal Territory and Chelyabinsk region. Except that Sverdlovsk region there is some exception here: the suburbs are gradually developing, in particular, accelerated flights to neighboring cities (Nizhny Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsky, etc.) have appeared, but their schedule is still Moscow time.
Station Seyatel (Novosibirsk), timetable. long distance trains- Moscow time, suburban - local (MSK+4).
Board at the suburban station of Chelyabinsk. Moscow time and 0 (zero) electric trains coming hours...
I would also like to note that Russian Railways is now trying to follow the path of Europe and develop multimodal transportation based on connecting different modes of transport (train + electric train, train + bus, train + plane, etc.). When the buses commuter trains, aviation write in schedules at the same time, and trains long distance- in another, it is not very convenient for passengers to perceive this, errors are possible due to incorrect determination of the time zone at the docking point, or during recalculation.
Reason #3 (push). Change of time zones in the regions of the Volga region and the World Cup.
In 2016, several regions of the Volga region changed the time zone, moving from Moscow time (where they lived for 25-30 years) an hour ahead. They certainly received a more comfortable light regime, but many residents were unprepared for the difference with Moscow. Since they have long been accustomed to living in the same time zone with the capital, some people have atrophied the "firmware" in their heads with the perception and processing of 2 or more time zones. The conversion from local time to Moscow time and vice versa turned out to be too difficult for such people, and they began to write indignant letters to Russian Railways. The latter went to meet them and in the middle of last year introduced double time in railway tickets (I am talking about this), and now, apparently, they are completing the reform.
There is also a version that the reform was carried out because of the World Cup in order to foreign guests didn't get confused. But here the timing does not match. The date announced by Russian Railways for the transfer of schedules to local time is August 1, 2018, and the championship will last from June 15 to July 15, 2018. However, it is possible that in the cities hosting the 2018 World Cup, the schedule reform will be carried out a couple of months earlier. Let's see...
But will the rejection of the single Moscow time in the schedules create more problems and inconveniences?
Such statements in connection with this reform are already heard and sometimes quite actively. I will analyze the most common:
1. Local time in schedules in a country with more than 10 time zones can lead to desynchronization of the railway and, as a result, failures, emergencies and derailments.
This is all either a misunderstanding of the principles of the railway, or notorious speculation. The entire internal "kitchen" of the railway has always worked and will work on a single time, so there will be no desynchronization. What is displayed for passengers does not affect internal dispatching in any way, neither in suburban transportation, nor in aviation (where information in local time has been conducted for a long time) so far not a single crash has been recorded for this reason.
2. A train is not an airplane, it has intermediate stops in different time zones, passengers will be confused along the way without a single time.
Here it is worth analyzing the situation in more detail. First, the question must first be answered, how many passengers cross time zones during the trip at least once?
At first, I honestly tried to find statistics on passenger traffic by destination in order to calculate the number of passengers across time zone boundaries, but in vain. Therefore, only the most general figures. According to the Russian Railways report for 2016 (see here), 101.4 million passengers used long-distance trains (9.2 of them in high-speed traffic). The passenger turnover of long-distance trains amounted to 93.5 billion passenger-kilometers (of which 4.6 in high-speed traffic). High-speed traffic in Russia is available only in one time zone, so we are obviously not interested, if we discard it and divide passenger traffic by passenger traffic, it turns out that the average trip length is 964 kilometers.
And now we look at the map or reference book: the average distance between the boundaries of time zones when driving along the Trans-Siberian Railway is 1200 - 1800 km. The only exceptions are the Samara (MSK + 1) and Omsk (MSK + 3) time zones, which are about 170 and 330 km, respectively, but these are very small regions in terms of population. That is, it turns out that the average passenger does not even reach the border of the time zone. Why does a passenger need Moscow time on a trip if he travels from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok, from Taishet to Irkutsk, from Novosibirsk to Krasnoyarsk or from Perm to Tyumen? It is definitely more convenient for such a passenger to see local time in the schedule.
photo by Andrey Yablonsky
Even if a passenger crosses one time zone during the trip, it is hardly more convenient for him to use Moscow time for this, it is easier to set the clock once - and that's it. And only for those who travel through 2 zones or more, it may be more convenient to navigate according to the single Moscow time on a trip than to remember where the time zone boundaries are and each time adjust the clock according to them. But are there many such passengers? According to my observations, even in long-distance Trans-Siberian trains of the type No. 99/100 Moscow - Vladivostok, there are less than half of them. And in other directions there are simply no such a priori, because almost nowhere else is there more than one hour border on the route. That is, the real share of such passengers, I think, is on the order of a percent. Agree, it is illogical to do what is convenient for a very small, highly specific group (which, moreover, as aviation develops, will only decrease in the future), to the detriment of the rest.
3. Yes, they toil with nonsense, everyone has long been accustomed to it and no one gets confused. Unless the "unified state exam victims" cannot add / subtract a few hours for the conversion from Moscow to local and vice versa.
Well, firstly, "the victims of the Unified State Examination" are also people, and Russian Railways, as passengers, are also important. And secondly, it is a myth that no one gets confused. At a minimum, those who rarely use railways, as well as residents of the Moscow time zone, who find themselves outside it for the first time, are often mistaken, these categories are simply not aware of this feature of Russian Railways.
But sometimes even experienced people make mistakes. Yes, due to absent-mindedness, inattention, accident, but nevertheless it happens. For example, one of my friends, when planning a transfer from a train to an electric train, incorrectly determined the time zone at the transfer point (it changed a couple of months before, but she did not know). As a result, when the train arrived, the train had already left. This is how the error brought down the trip a little. And if the train schedule had local time, such a mistake would not have happened.
Another friend of mine bought a ticket for a train leaving in the middle of the night. He correctly counted from Moscow time to local time, but did not take into account that the ticket had to be bought for "yesterday's" date (when it's 2:50 in Novosibirsk, in Moscow it's still "yesterday"). I discovered this error only during landing (when it turned out that his place was taken). Since the trip was planned for a specific event, it partially lost its meaning ... Yes, in some way, of course, it is my own fault, you need to be more careful, but nevertheless, many people have difficulties because of this.
4. Now, when crossing the border, the conductors will have to reconfigure the time on the scoreboard inside the cars every time. Extra chores, probably sometimes will be forgotten.
Perhaps this is the only real
problem. But, firstly, it’s still not worth dramatizing, when moving from west to east, on average, hourly borders go after 21 hours (I counted for the fastest train No. 1/2 "Russia"). Additional fuss almost once a day for a couple of minutes obviously will not overload the conductor with work. Yes, at first they may make mistakes and forget, but I think after 2-3 flights they will get used to it and will do it automatically.
Well, in the future, of course, we need to make this function automatic, with synchronization via GPS-Glonass.
5. But what about those places where the railway passes along the time border, and "jumps" first to one time zone, then to another several times in a short distance?
There are only a few such places throughout Russia (for example, the section Agryz - Naberezhnye Chelny) and there is no intensive passenger traffic anywhere through them, mostly only local. I think that for such lines it is necessary to decide on an individual basis, for example, both time zones should be indicated in the schedules.
That's all. I hope I convinced you that the planned reform is really reasonable and that most passengers will feel a little more comfortable. Yes, of course, it’s a little sad and sorry for the age-old tradition, which was even sung by some foreigners traveling in Russia, but railway need to develop. In the meantime, take pictures of Moscow time on the station clocks and scoreboards, as well as in the timetables in the carriages of long-distance trains - soon it will be history. 
Traveling by plane, tourists cover thousands of kilometers and many time zones, so it's easy to get lost in time. How can you not remember the tale of lost time. Even flying inside the country, it is easy to get confused, because Russia is a country with a huge territory and a large number of time zones. Passengers of flights need to know for sure what time is indicated on the tickets as local or Moscow, at least in order to arrive at the airport on time.
Not everyone has to fly often, but there are commonplace cases when, meeting their guests at the airport, people think about what time planes fly around Russia.
After all, many people think in the old fashioned way that Moscow time is indicated, but in fact it is local.
For example, if you are flying from Moscow to Yekaterinburg, then the departure time will be indicated in Moscow, and the arrival time in Yekaterinburg.
If you are flying to another country with a different time zone, then the departure time is indicated local, from where you are departing, the arrival time is also local, but of the country you are arriving in.
How to find the time on the ticket and how it is indicated
Look for an English word TIME in column 8, the departure time is indicated local, and the arrival time may be absent altogether. Check in advance the time difference of the region where you are flying. Please note that the start and end times of check-in and baggage check-in are not indicated on the tickets.
Usually, check-in for a flight starts 3 hours before departure, that is, before the time printed on the ticket, and ends 40-50 minutes before it.
Taking into account the time difference is often simply necessary. For example, you need to transfer to another plane flight or go further by other transport, bus, train. Knowing what time is indicated on plane tickets, and adding the difference from your time zone, you will find out the local time where you will arrive. The air tickets do not indicate the total time, so that there is no confusion. The total time is the difference between the moment the plane takes off and the moment it lands.
What are open date tickets?
For the convenience of passengers, there are open date tickets, they are offered by many air carriers in an effort to attract passengers. With such a ticket, you can fly whenever you want, but it will, of course, cost a little more than a regular ticket. In him, in the TIME column, it says OPEN ( open date) . Choose the time in the schedule for the date you need and arrive at the airport by the time the tickets are registered.
What does an e-ticket look like and where is the time indicated?
E-ticket
Many people enjoy the convenience of booking and ordering air tickets via the Internet. receiving e-ticket in the form of a printed sheet of A4 format, you will see that it has all the data about the flight. The time is indicated in the same column and in the same format.
If you are traveling by train in Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok or traveling abroad, then the question arises of what time the train leaves on the ticket. It is worth sorting it out in order, because tickets are sold with different options for departure times.
As stated in Russia before
Time zones first appeared in the 19th century in Great Britain thanks to railways. Due to the complexity of the train schedule, in 1847 a single time zone of the country was introduced. In Russia, a similar thing appeared after the revolution in 1919. Since that time, the schedule of Russian Railways in the USSR has been indicated for Moscow, it remained the same in Russia. The exception is international travel, in which case the hours of arrival at a station in another country are written in local time.
The time on the ticket becomes local
Airlines have long begun to use a single time for internal technical needs, but indicate the local time on tickets. In 2018, Russian Railways decided to follow suit. From August 1, the information will change, departure and arrival will be indicated in local time, even on electronic scoreboards in station buildings. Ticket sales for flights using the new rules began on May 4. Trains departing before 1 August are subject to the old conditions.
Railway tickets with departure and arrival times according to the Moscow time zone are sold for flights until August 1, 2018In order not to get confused, you should look at the bottom line of the landing document, the old and new versions are different:
- An example of the old format: "Time of departure and arrival in Moscow."
- The new one indicates the local time with the specification of the time zone, for example "21.00 (MSK +3)"
Many trains in Russia during their journey can cross more than one time zone, but all trains, without exception, now depart and arrive at Moscow time. Often, when buying RZD tickets, passengers think about why this is so, why local time is not used.
Moscow time - a unified reference system
All trains on railways in Russia depart and arrive at Moscow time. Local time is not used for the convenience of passengers. A single reference system allows you not to get confused at the stations and determine exactly when you need to get off. In addition, using the same time zone allows you to accurately determine the travel time.
If local time was used, the train schedule would look a bit odd. For example, such a train arrives at station number 1 at 14.00, to station number 2 at 13.30 (the train just moved to another time zone). To prevent this from happening, Moscow time was taken as the reporting system.
Airplanes use local time because they don't stop on their way, but trains stop quite often. In addition, the movement of the train must be synchronized with other trains in order to avoid unpleasant consequences. A single temporary system helps to do this successfully. The only exception is the Kaliningrad Railway, which uses its own local time.
It wasn't always like this
Now passengers are used to the fact that trains depart and arrive according to Moscow time, but this was not always the case. Previously, only local time was used on the railway. Despite the fact that such a timing scheme seems complicated, passengers never complained about the inconvenience.
Meeting trains and planning trips when the trains are running local time is very easy as there is no confusion. It's a little more difficult if you're on a train and you have to get off, but you don't know exactly when. In this case, you could turn to the conductor for help. He won't let you miss his station.
A bit of history
Few people know that trains on the railway in 1917 ran according to St. Petersburg time. After, in 1919, it was decided at the legislative level to use capital time when scheduling.
When all trains began to run according to Moscow time, passengers began to get confused, because the clock at the station showed the same time, the time was indicated on the tickets, and on the wristwatch. At first, this caused some inconvenience, but after the passengers got used to it.
If you are buying Railway tickets, they indicate only Moscow time, although passengers offer a profitable alternative - to indicate both Moscow and local time with a corresponding note.
27.08.2018, 09:35
People fly to different parts of the world, crossing different time zones. Having bought a plane ticket, the question may arise, what time is indicated on the ticket, local or Moscow, what time will I arrive?
To avoid misunderstandings, a unified time designation system has been adopted. Always and All tickets show local time.. That is, the local time will be indicated on the ticket of the airport of departure, and at the airport of arrival - the time of the region where you arrive.
For example, if you are flying from, to, then the time of departure on the ticket will be Krasnodar, and the time of arrival will be Omsk.
Where can I see the time on the ticket and how it is indicated
The time of departure and arrival on paper and can be viewed in the eighth column with the inscription TIME. The time of arrival of the airline may not be indicated. Therefore, it is better to first clarify the time difference in the city where you are arriving. For example, if you need or need to continue your journey by other transport, then it will not be difficult to find out the time of the place where you will arrive - by the time indicated on the plane ticket, add the time difference with your time zone.
Also, it should be taken into account that the ticket does not indicate the start and end time of check-in,
