On May 24, Minsk / Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA /. There are no plans to increase domestic fares for passenger trains in Belarus in the near future. This was announced today at a press conference in Minsk by Vladimir Stolyar, Head of the Department for Coordination of Station Operations of the Passenger Service of Belarusian Railway, as reported by BELTA correspondent. "Domestic tariffs will not change in the near future; the current level will be maintained," noted the representative of Belarusian Railway, specifying that no increases are planned for the summer period. He also recalled that tariffs for domestic passenger railway transportation are determined by the Ministry of Economy. Furthermore, no sharp increase in fares is planned for international passenger trains. "If the exchange rate of the Swiss franc, to which international tariffs for trains to the CIS and Baltic countries are pegged, and the euro exchange rate, to which tariffs for trains to far abroad countries are pegged, do not change, then no sharp changes in fares are expected," said Vladimir Stolyar. "Last year, Belarusian Railway did not increase prices on its own; the price increase occurred solely due to the sharp rise in the Swiss franc and euro exchange rates." "We use a flexible tariff regulation system based on the time of year; for example, with Russian Railways, there are 21 periods," added the specialist. "In summer, the cost of travel is slightly higher than in the autumn-winter period." Answering journalists' questions about how Belarus's entry into the Single Economic Space will affect train fare levels, Vladimir Stolyar noted that changes will occur, but this is a very distant prospect. "Something will change, but it is too early to talk about it today. The goal of moving away from cross-subsidization is unequivocally pursued," he said. According to the specialist, most international passenger railway transportation is profitable today, while domestic transportation is unprofitable; however, it is socially significant, and tariffs for it are maintained. Based on the results of January-April of the current year, Belarusian Railway transported over 28 million passengers, which exceeded the level of January-April of the previous year by 17.7%. In the specified period, local passenger trains carried 30.3% more passengers than in the same period of 2011, and suburban trains and city line trains carried 16.9% more. Passenger transportation in international traffic increased by 5.6%.