When Ukraine’s railroads got brand new Hyundai trains on the eve of last summer's Euro 2012 football championships, both hard criticism and optimistic expectations were in the air.
When
the first weeks brought multiple complaints about delays and
breakdowns, officials and railway workers calmed everyone,
saying that trains just need a couple months to be adjusted
to local conditions. A half-year later,
reports on Hyundai trains breakdowns still get to the news
regularly.
The Kyiv Post collected some of the opinions, shared online by Ukrainian Hyundai passengers during the last week.
A user nicknamed Wasik from Lviv writes at forum of www.tuning.lviv.ua website on Dec. 10:
“Funny thing with that Hyundai.
When I arrived to Kyiv’s station, I asked the stewardess where car #9 was. She looked at me wide-eyed and sent me to the trainmaster. The trainmaster, a woman in her 30s, swore at me, at 15 other people standing near her with the same problem, and at cashiers, who had sold tickets for car #9, while she has no more than six cars! Three cars were detached from the train two weeks ago. I decided to take the ride standing, just not to stay in Kyiv.
Most of the people did the same, and we entered car #3, standing there like in a tram. Others stayed.
When the train departed, I went to see if there were any spare seats in other cars. Imagine how surprised I was, when what I saw after car #5 was car#9, not #6! It turned out that they detached cars #6, 7 and 8, but left car #9.
So I went back to others and took them to our car. Trainmaster went with us. In car #9, we took our seats, and the trainmaster was like: “Oh, and I’ve left out about five passengers…”.
Hello to everyone from Ukrzaliznytsia, where even trainmaster and stewards don’t know the numeration of the cars in their own train!”
Maxym Shpachenko from Kyiv writes on his Facebook page on Dec. 9:
“I’ve only got home now. And I had to be home hour and a half ago. At 4:50 p.m. Hyundai train was scheduled to take me from Donetsk, and to get me to Kyiv at 11:35 p.m. But the train was just standing. With no lights and no people. Near it there were some Koreans with a big ladder, trying to do something.
Passengers were told that train was to depart from platform #2, not #1. We went to platform #2. There was the same Hyundai standing, now we just were at its other side. We were waiting. Koreans were trying.
Suddenly, Hyundai’s light was on. I’ve found car #1 and waited for the doors to open. Some woman asked me if I wanted to take Hyundai to Kyiv. Yes, yes, I do. “There is another train going to Kyiv, this one,” she said, pointing at the regular red train. I didn’t believe her, but rushed to the train’s steward.
“What are you waiting for? Get in quickly, your seat is #15!” he said.
I’ve stepped in and train departed a minute later. Some passengers were still at the platform, not aware that their train has already left. They were still waiting.
In the train, we were promised some tea. And we’ve got it. And paid Hr 5 each.
In the train, I wanted to sleep, but there were no sheets.
It was cold, but there were no blankets and we used our coats instead. […]
We were seated 5-6 people in each compartment. Like there is a war, and we are transported out of ghetto. Or to the ghetto. […]
To get off the train in Konstantinovka, people rushed to trainmaster and begged him for stop, because driver decided not to stop at that station.
During stop in Boryspil, people used emergency brake, because driver didn’t want to wait for everyone to get off.
Those who planned to get home by subway, went there by taxi. On their own expense, of course.
If someone thinks it was a force majeure, I think that birth of Borys Kolesnikov [Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, who was in charge of Euro 2012 preparations, including purchase of Hyundai trains] was a mistake. I’m fine paying Hr 5 for it. And I’d like to pay more to fix it.”
Dmitriy Drozdow wrote on Facebook page of Ukrzaliznytsia on. Dec. 10:
“Good day!
Today I used Kyiv-Kharkiv Intercity+ train. It arrived to Kharkiv with a significant delay. On Friday, Dec. 7 I was a passenger of morning Intercity+ train going from Kharkiv to Kyiv, and it arrived late too. Tell me if there are any compensations for passengers of delayed trains and how does one get it?”
[added later by same author]“I just can’t stop ‘enjoying’ Ukrainian-style service. I can only get refund if the train was replaced with one of the lower class. In that case the gap between tickets’ price would be refunded. But if you’ve got to the destination place by that same Hyundai, only five hours later – that means no refund at all! Bravo. Go on…”
