Russian Railways has introduced mandatory provision of passenger contact information when purchasing a ticket in all sales channels, including the Internet and ticket offices at train stations. The company explained this by the need to promptly inform passengers about changes in train traffic, reports Travel.ru's own correspondent.
The probability of such changes is now many times higher than usual - due to the coronavirus epidemic, several hundred trains have already been cancelled and this list continues to grow. It is not entirely clear whether contact information can be used for other epidemic-related notifications - for example, about the introduction of quarantines in the region of arrival and the like.
Such data may be a telephone number or an email address (when purchasing a ticket on the Russian Railways website, you are only asked to provide a telephone number). It is not very clear what Russian Railways will do with passengers who do not have a mobile phone or email. Previously, providing such data was an optional option.
Source: travel.ru