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Russian Railways expects peak numbers of passengers Dec 28-30, Jan 7-8.

Apart from seats on regular trains, as many as 17 supplementary trains will perform 35 scheduled trips

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) — OAO Russian Railways /RZD/ expects the traditional New Year/Christmas peak numbers of customers in the period of December 28 to December 30 and January 7-8, sources at the Federal Passenger Company /an RZD affiliation/ told Itar-Tass Wednesday.

All in all, about six million Russians are expected to use the long-distance services of the RZD during the long vacations, due to begin December 30, 2012, and to end January 8, 2013.

“To meet the demand for transportation, a total of 420 supplementary trains will perform 1,350 trips, including the ones between Russian cities and the destinations in Finland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland,” a source said.

About 1.4 million passengers will start their long-distance trips from the terminals of the Moscow Railway hub alone and another 500,000 passengers will leave from the railway terminals of the St Petersburg hub.

The source made particular emphasis on children’s trips, saying: “The railways will service more than 80,000 children customers between December 21, 2012, and January 10, 2013, who will travel as members of organized groups.”

Apart from seats on regular trains, as many as 17 supplementary trains will perform 35 scheduled trips.

In a special event that will take place December 26, about 3,500 children will arrive in Moscow from different parts of Russia aboard 45 chartered trains to attend the traditional All-Russia New Year Party in the Kremlin.

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