Following the incident with the cat named Tweeкс, Russian Railways (RZD) intends to make changes to the rules for transporting animals. Deputy General Director of the company Ivan Kolesnikov announced this during a speech at a round table in the State Duma.
We plan to personalize the transportation of animals to some extent, so that it is possible to understand more specifically who we are transporting
According to the proposed changes, all information about the animal being transported on the train will now be displayed on the conductor's mobile device. This will allow for more effective control of the process and prevent similar incidents in the future.
The initiative is also supported by FPC, a subsidiary of Russian Railways. During the discussion in the State Duma, the company's General Director Vladimir Pyastolov emphasized that the corresponding changes will take time.
We already see that it is necessary to indicate the type of animal when issuing a ticket, to display this information on the conductor's mobile device, this is also technically possible. And the conductor will check, clearly understanding what kind of animal is traveling in his car. This is not yet the case at the moment
The essence of the initiative is to provide the possibility of more detailed tracking of transported animals. Currently, such data is not displayed in the company's documents, but according to the plans, all information about the animal can be seen on the conductor's mobile device.
Kolesnikov noted that the company is already working on updating information systems, which will take time. However, thanks to this change, conductors will be able to accurately determine what animal is in their car. This will also allow passengers to be warned about neighbors with animals when buying tickets, taking into account possible allergies and other situations.
As a reminder, the incident with the cat Tweeкс occurred on the Yekaterinburg - St. Petersburg train. The cat, having escaped from the carrier, was mistakenly taken for a stray and released onto the platform by the conductor at a station in Kirov. Later, volunteers found the cat dead. According to the rules of Russian Railways, a pet must be transported in specially designated cars. When buying a ticket online, they are marked with a "paw" icon.
As a rule, a certain fee is charged for the transportation of small pets, such as dogs, cats and birds, on long-distance trains. The amount of this fee is established by the rules of a particular carrier and may vary depending on the class of service and other conditions. At the same time, when paying for all seats in the compartment, a special rule applies: no additional fee is charged for the transportation of small pets.
In order to exclude the possibility of recurrence of such incidents in the future, changes have been made to the documents regulating the transportation of pets on long-distance trains of JSC "FPC". Now conductors will be prohibited from disembarking animals from the train. If an animal is found, it must be transferred to employees at stopping points with a call to representatives of animal welfare organizations.
At the end of last year, Russian Railways launched in test mode the possibility to present a QR code on "Gosuslugi" instead of a regular ticket. Now all conductors have special terminals with a database of passengers. Therefore, in 99% of cases, passengers only present their passport, and a printout of tickets is not required. The company also concluded an agreement with the developers of Astra Linux on import substitution of software in Russian Railways.