Customer service innovations

Transporting pets in a dedicated compartment

In 2019, we continued to successfully grow our service of transporting pets in baggage compartments unaccompanied. In 2019, over 10,000 pets were carried on a total of 237 FPC’s trains.

Children’s travel kits

Between 15 July and 31 December 2019, FPC held an Exciting Railway Journey! promotion targeting passengers travelling in premium carriages, which are mostly found on our branded trains. Young passengers travelling in the carriages covered by the promotion received travel kits for ages under five or from five to ten. During the promotion period, FPC delivered kits to over 300,000 children.

Lost property service on the Russian Railways website

On 1 March 2019, an automated feedback channel was launched on the pass.rzd.ru website, whereby any passenger may inquire about personal items they have left behind on a train.

Over the nine months since the service launch, more than 15,000 lost items were returned to their owners.

Purchasing tickets on-board

As of 1 July 2019, all FPC’s trains are equipped with a new software solution enabling passengers to purchase their tickets from the trainmaster. New options have also been added for passenger convenience: e-ticket registration, amending passenger details, upgrading to a higher-category carriage and replacement ticket issuance.

The new software has enabled the Company to minimise the number of passengers denied boarding due to ticket data discrepancies.

Passenger carriage disinfection procedures

Since the start of 2020, the spread of COVID-19 has become the most acute problem. We understand our passengers’ desire to make sure their journey does not expose them to health risks. As the country’s largest carrier, we are fully aware of our responsibility in this challenging situation, and we would like to detail the measures we are taking to make travelling with us safer.

As per Sanitary Rules for the Organisation of Passenger Transport by Rail SP 2.5.1198-03 (“Sanitary Rules”), preventive passenger carriage disinfection, including toilet and waste bin disinfection, is done in each carriage within a train during pre-trip preparations at each originating and turnaround station.

These disinfection procedures are carried out by medical disinfection staff of Hygiene and Epidemiology Centres of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor).

As per Rospotrebnadzor’s recommendations, disinfection procedures on trains were stepped from 23 January 2020: after each trip, all surfaces in the carriages are now decontaminated. Door handles, tables, internal walls and other high-touch surfaces are disinfected with particular care. Disinfectants active against coronaviruses are used.

After each disinfection carried out at an originating or turnaround station, carriage attendants or outsourcing contractor employees clean all spaces within the carriages. Following the carriage cleaning, all cleaning equipment and wiping cloths are sanitised by immersing in a disinfectant solution, rinsed and dried.

During journeys, disinfectant cleaning agents are used for routine carriage cleaning. At least four times a day, all door handles within each carriage are wiped with a disinfectant solution, and all toilets, as well as floors and lower wall surfaces up to 1.5 m in toilet facilities are cleaned with disinfectant cleaning agents with the same frequency. Following each cleaning, carriage attendants treat their hands with skin antiseptics.