Will it be possible to get to Minsk from regions on December 19?
Tickets to trains and buses are still sold, but the police have started checking the buses which go to Minsk.
More than 12% of voters have voted early. Probably, many of them wanted to go out of the city for the weekend to see their families or just have a rest. The European Radio for Belarus has decided to find out whether there it will be difficult to return to Minsk on Sunday and whether there will be any train and bus tickets left.
It turned out that it will be possible to get to Minsk from all the regional centers of Belarus on December 19. At least, tickets are sold today. The box-office sellers claim there are both train tickets and intercity bus tickets.
You can travel from Brest to Minsk by train or by a speedy commuter train. There are some free seats yet, as they told us in the railway info-center:
Railway station's info-center: “There are enough spare seats this week - a 16.05 train, both in the first class and in the economy class. There is also a speedy commuter train at 16:40, we have tickets for ordinary and plane seats. It arrives to Minsk at 20.40. There are also tickets for any kind of seats in the 17.40 train”.
It is also possible to get to Minsk by buses - the tickets are in free sale at the moment.
Trains go from Hrodna to Minsk starting from 6 a.m. and there are still spare seats in them, said the railway station's employee.
“There are trains at 6:30, 16:00, 17:20. We still have tickets”.
You will have to get up early to get to Minsk from Mahileu. The railway station's info-center has told us that there are only tree trains to Minsk for the whole day:
“To Minsk, morning - 7:27, then 18:00 and 23:58, nothing more”.
The tickets to all three trains are still available.
You can also get to Minsk from Mahileu by bus. However, the info-center advises to reserve a ticket beforehand, just in case.
“We have a lot of direct routes. Tickets are still available. However, you'd better buy tickets beforehand, who knows what will happen there. You can also reserve a ticket, but you will have to buy it anyway within 24 hours”.
Buses from Vitsebsk to Minsk will go nearly every hour, tickets to all of them are available.
Railway station's employee: “The first bus departs at 5:15. Then 6:30, 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, 12:40, 13:50, 15:10, 17:45 and 18:30. We have tickets to all of them”.
As for Homel, there are no tickets available to one of the trains which arrive to Minsk on December 19. However, the rumours that no tickets will be sold to the train Homel-Minsk on December 19 have not been confirmed. The European Radio for Belarus has found out in the railway station's box-office that the tickets are in free sale and no one was going to prohibit selling them.
The only problem is that almost all the tickets to the train which leaves Homel at 11.11 and arrives to Minsk at 16.00 have been sold out, there are only tickets to the train which arrives to Minsk at 19.19 available. However, there are few of the cheap ones left.
It won't be a problem to get to Minsk from Baranavichy on Sunday, December 19. There will be many trains and commuter trains there.
“The commuter train leaves at 16.05 and arrives to Minsk at 18:44. There is another commuter train, at 15:06. You can always buy tickets to commuter trains”, — says an employee of the railway station.
Besides, the police have checked the buses that went from Hrodna to Minsk today, according to the information provided by our listener. The policemen asked about the aims of the trip and checked the passengers' documents.
Hrodna police refutes this information. They say the traffic police could check a bus but this is just an occasional occurrence. There is no such order, said the policemen.
