Industry experts attribute five percent decline in Russian train passengers to mobilization

The number of passengers traveling on Russia’s commuter trains declined significantly last month. According to Russian Railways, 88.4 million people used the trains in October 2022 — 5.4 percent less than in October 2021.

According to experts from the Institute for Natural Monopolies Research, Russian rail traffic experienced an “uncharacteristic decline” both relative to previous months of this year and relative to last October. According to the Russian news outlet Vedomosti, the experts attribute the drop to “the decline in transport mobility among the male half of the population amid the announcement of partial mobilization in the country at the end of September.”

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