The UZ-3000 program starts in Ukraine on December 1: how it will work
1 December 2025 12:16
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution that launches the UZ-3000 program of free rail travel. As part of this initiative, every citizen will be able to travel up to 3000 km on Ukrzaliznytsia trains within Ukraine for free once, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
This amount of travel was not chosen by chance: 3000 km roughly corresponds to the longest round trip across the country, so the program allows you to conditionally “cross Ukraine from one end to the other” at public expense. The goal of the initiative is to simultaneously support the population in the winter and help the railroad, which is suffering losses due to the war and the drop in freight traffic. The government also expects that free kilometers will encourage people to travel during off-peak periods, relieving the busiest dates.
An important condition of the program is that free kilometers do not apply to high-comfort cars and high-speed trains. UZ-3000 cannot be used to purchase tickets for reserved seats, business class, or for Intercity and Intercity trains.
The free travel will be valid only in standard class cars – reserved seats, compartments and seats on regular long-distance trains. It is also emphasized that the program applies only to domestic flights; international destinations are not covered by the resolution. This approach, according to the government, allows the initiative to maintain its social nature while not “collapsing” revenues from the premium transportation segment.
The program will be launched in two stages. At the first stage, Ukrainians will be offered a limited list of special routes and dates, primarily during the so-called low season, when trains traditionally have many vacant seats. Already at this stage, it will be possible to use part or all of the 3,000 km by combining several trips within the available destinations.
After analyzing the demand, workload and technical capabilities of Ukrzaliznytsia, the list of routes will be expanded to include more destinations and dates. Thus, the program should gradually cover a much larger number of flights, while maintaining control over the load on the system.
To take advantage of the free travel, passengers will need to buy a ticket in the usual way – through the website or mobile application of Ukrzaliznytsia or at a railway ticket office, but subject to the terms of the UZ-3000 program. During the booking process, the system will take into account the remaining available kilometers for a particular passenger and automatically “write off” them for the chosen route if it meets the requirements of the resolution.
The detailed mechanism, including registration in the program and the format of kilometer accounting, is currently being finalized, and the government and the railroad have announced some clarifications. The authorities emphasize that the program is part of a broader “winter support” package, so in the coming weeks, Ukrainians are promised a full set of rules and answers to frequently asked questions.
