The Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine plans to index tariffs for passenger transportation by rail on domestic routes by 20% in 2015, taking into account improved service, Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kava told Interfax-Ukraine while inspecting the construction of the Beskydsky tunnel on Wednesday.

"It is planned to index the tariffs in three phases in the first half of 2015," he said.

Kava said that the tariffs for passenger transportation will not be increased without a visible improvement in service quality.

As reported, in 2014 tariffs for passenger transportation by rail were indexed from August 8 and October 1. They were increased twice by 10% for all types of passenger cars, apart from first class and Intercity+.

In 2014 the head of the department for technological provision of information technologies at its main passenger division, Nina Kostrubytska, said that the indexation of tariffs for passenger transportation on domestic routes led to losses of 6%.

In 2014, Ukrainian railways cut passenger transportation by 8.9% compared to 2013, to over 440 million people. The loss exceeded UAH 7.9 billion.