OREANDA-NEWS. March 20, 2014. During the XI Paralympic Winter Games, electric suburban commuter trains operated by Russian Railways transported almost 860,000 passengers around the Sochi region.

The volume of passenger traffic during the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games was proportional to the number of competitions and events in the mountain and coastal clusters. Russian Railways transported an average of some 86,000 passengers on its commuter trains every day.

Peak passenger traffic occurred on 7 and 16 March 2014, during the opening and closing days of the Sochi Games.

March 16 saw suburban trains transport the greatest number of passengers during the entire period of the Games – over 134,000 people, which is even more than the number of passengers carried on 7 March, the opening day of the Winter Olympics, when the number of passengers amounted to 110,800.

During the Paralympic Winter Games, Lastochka electric commuter trains operated on a special timetable to service the transportation needs of participants, fans and guests:

on the stretch between Adler – Sochi Airport, the Lastochkas made 36 runs every day;

on the stretch between Sochi – Krasnaya Polyana - 75 runs;

on the stretch between Sochi – Olympic Park - 81 runs;

on the stretch between Olympic Park – Krasnaya Polyana - 14 runs.

In order to meet the demand for transportation as passenger numbers increased, Russian Railways regularly laid on the necessary number of additional runs by Lastochka trains in all directions.

For the period of the Paralympic Games, the duration of stops at all stations and halting points was increased so that people with disabilities and limited mobility would have more time for boarding and disembarking. Each train carried between 5 to 12 wheelchair users.

From 7 March to 19 March 2014, (as well as during the XXII Winter Olympic Games), Russian Railways followed an Open Door policy on its commuter electric trains serving passengers in the Sochi region, according to which the turnstile lines at station entrances and exits were open without passengers having to obtain tickets, i.e. all passengers were provided free transportation.
During this period, according to revised data, 3,904,000 passengers were transported around the Sochi region by electric commuter trains operated by Russian Railways.

Over the whole period of the XXII Winter Olympic Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games, Russian Railways commuter trains transported 4,764,000 passengers.