Travel Notes

New Aeroflot Chief

President Boris Yeltsin recently appointed his son-in-law, Valery Okulov, to be acting director of the national Aeroflot carrier. Okulov, 44, husband of Yeltsin’s eldest daughter Yelena, was previously first deputy to the outgoing chief of Aeroflot, and was in charge of the carrier’s Operations Manage-ment and Organization department. Okulov will remain acting director until Aeroflot’s board of directors appoints a new head at the next board meeting.

British Invasion

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has long sought to bring order to Moscow’s problematic taxi services, and, with an infusion of London’s classic, soft-shaped Carbody taxis, he may have just found a solution. After toying with clumsy Volgas, breakdown-prone Moskviches and even South Korean Daewoos, the city is importing 10 British Metrocabs in the hope they will take root and grow into a domestic taxi-manufacturing industry. The modern Metrocabs are due to hit Moscow streets within the year.

Railroad without Breaks

Russia’s Supreme Court refused to consider a lawsuit by legislators and environmentalists aimed at halting plans for a costly, new high-speed rail line between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The multi-billion-dollar project calls for laying tracks across Valdai National Park which, opponents say, could disrupt the watershed in the region, which feeds the Volga and the Dnieper rivers. Environmentalists say it would be cheaper and safer to simply refurbish the existing 700-kilometer track. The high court declined to take the case because it is outside its jurisdiction. In response, the chairwoman of the parliament’s ecology committee, liberal lawmaker Tamara Zlotnikova, has said she might take the case to the Constitutional Court.

Out with the Old

Moscow City Transportation (Mosgortrans) has announced that March 31, 1997 will be the last day for riders of Moscow’s trams, buses, and trolleys to use their current tickets. From April 1, these forms of  public transportation will only accept new tickets. However, realizing that the majority of passengers will still have old tickets in their possession, Mosgortrans is making it possible for people to go to the city’s main ticket office and trade in their old tickets for new ones. However, tickets must first be verified to avoid any attempts at forgery, which was one of the main reasons new tickets were originally deemed necessary.