Rail service in southern Russia has not yet been fully restored following a drone attack. Late Friday evening, debris from a downed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) damaged the overhead contact lines on the railway near Likhaya station, causing trains to back up.
The incident created significant disruptions for a second day. Since this section of the railway operates on electric traction, southbound trains began to queue. As the substation was being repaired and electric train movement reorganized, trains continued to accumulate, leading to a domino effect of delays.
According to Russian Railways (RZD), a total of 132 trains experienced delays. Some trains were stranded for over 15 hours in scorching 30-degree Celsius heat, with some even pulled into open fields. Passengers reported non-functional air conditioning and running out of water. Volunteers, however, stepped in to deliver food and water to the carriages.
Currently, electric traction service has resumed, and efforts to restore the train schedule are ongoing. However, southern railway stations remain crowded with people waiting with their luggage, as reported by Nikolay Grishchenko, an online editor for «Rossiyskaya Gazeta» covering the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts:
«As of today, over 130 trains in southern Russia are experiencing delays ranging from 30 minutes to 15 hours. The only change in the situation is that today, rain replaced the 40-degree heat, making it slightly easier to breathe and endure the warmth. Stations are still packed with a large number of people. They are being provided with still drinking water, instant noodles, and crackers or bread. Cups, plastic spoons, and so on are also distributed. Why do many people stay at the stations? They explained to me that SMS notifications and calls from RZD might not reach them due to spam and mobile scam protection, so these messages simply don`t get through. Therefore, people prefer to come and wait at the station, listening to the announcement boards for their train. Many passengers have even started buying small, foldable fishing chairs for waiting. Stations are operating, security is working, and passengers are not expressing discontent. There seem to be no reported cases requiring medical assistance. Judging by reports that 50,000 food kits were distributed over two days, you can understand the sheer number of people involved. Approximately 50,000 people were affected by this incident over two days.»
Meanwhile, 37 trains have already reached their final destinations. A train bound for Kazan, which was delayed for 11 hours near Likhaya, is still en route. A passenger on this train, Dmitry, reported that it is now moving without long stops:
«We are currently in Ruzaevka, Mordovia; we are still traveling. We are no longer experiencing long stops, but we are still delayed by 11 hours. This means we were supposed to arrive in Kazan at 2:30 PM, but we will arrive around midnight, for example. We have just been released; there`s about a 5-minute stop, and we are waiting to depart. Everything is normal so far; the `People`s Front` provided us with water, `Agusha` baby food, and instant noodles near Likhaya station, and then they also brought us canned goods—rice porridge with beef and liver pâté.»
Train 125S from Novorossiysk to Moscow was delayed for 14 hours at Likhaya. A passenger named Daniil confirmed that this train has now reached its destination:
«In total, we were delayed for about 14 hours. Regarding food, indeed, by evening we were given a packet of `Rollton` instant noodles and a 0.33-liter bottle of water. Then the train quickly started making up time, and we arrived at Kazan Station today at 4:15 AM. We were originally supposed to arrive at 7:40 PM yesterday, but that`s how it turned out. Overall, everything went relatively normally afterward; the train sped up, trying to catch up on time. There were some stops, and we could even get off at some, but we covered the distance from Voronezh to Moscow in about four hours.»
According to ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia), tour operators have expressed readiness to assist tourists unable to return from southern resorts due to train delays, for instance, by extending their hotel stays.
Restoring train schedules is a lengthy process, and given the scale of this disruption, it has already taken more than a day.
