Ukrainian Railways improves women’s safety with dedicated compartments for longer journeys

Ukrzaliznytsia Ukrainian Railways will offer special compartments exclusively for women as a new service. The company's app will offer tickets for purchase once the service is fully developed.

Rubryka reports, citing the statement of Oleksandr Shevchenko, Ukrzaliznytsia head of communications and marketing.

What is the problem?

Ukrainian activists registered a petition on the website of the Ukrainian government, asking to introduce separate carriages for women and men in Ukrzaliznytsia trains.

In the petition published on May 15, the author Olha Ozhohina urges to create dedicated carriages for men and women in trains that follow a route longer than six hours.

"During long train journeys, passengers who need to sleep in compartments or reserved carriages may experience discomfort if they are sharing the space with individuals of the opposite gender," the text of the petition reads.

Unwanted and invasive behavior has been reported in shared train compartments, including deliberate touches and even cases of rape. Mostly, men are responsible for these incidents.

According to Ozhohyna, there may be inconveniences when changing clothes in shared carriages for both men and women, among other issues.

What is the solution?

"The railway has made the decision to implement a series of measures to improve the comfort and safety of women. Among these measures is a pilot project featuring women-only compartments," said Yevhen Liashchenko, chair of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia.

Compartments will be available for women, transwomen, and mothers with children of any gender who are under six years old. This issue is still being discussed and needs more development. The company has not finalized the routes where the new service will be available, but they're primarily focusing on long-distance ones that involve long travel for passengers.

How does it work?

The company will test the innovation for a few months and, with input from the community and experts, determine if they should continue with it permanently. According to Shevchenko, the company will assess the demand and feedback as the criteria for the decision.

The clients can buy a ticket for such a compartment through the Ukrzaliznytsia app. This feature will be provided in one of its next releases. There will be no need to pay extra for the women's compartment.

Later, Shevchenko deleted his post, and the company's press service stated that Ukrzaliznytsia "is considering introducing women's compartments." The company says it needs to develop IT solutions, make changes to regulatory acts, and also consult with lawyers and international and Ukrainian public organizations.

"Meanwhile, we're comprehensively improving travel safety: all new and modernized carriages — which is already about 15% of carriages in active use — are equipped with video surveillance cameras and conductor call buttons," the company added. "We believe in a set of measures where emergency buttons and alarms in the compartment, video surveillance, increased patrolling, and inevitable punishment for any proven harassment will play a key role in stopping this phenomenon."