The Moscow metro on Sunday hiked its prices for the second time in just over a year, raising the cost of a single ride from 40 to 50 rubles ($0.70).
High inflation has become a fact of Russian life in the past six months, with sanctions on Western food imports and a currency crisis stoking price rises to over 11 percent last year.
But the metro's move far outstrips that rate: The price of a single ride has risen 66 percent over just 13 months.
Despite collecting higher fares, the metro's dollar income is still significantly lower than it was just last year.
At the start of 2014, the 40-ruble single ride ticket translated to $1.20. Now, after Western sanctions and an oil price fall cut the Russian currency's dollar value in half, the more expensive 50 ruble ticket is worth only $0.70.
This is likely to cause problems for the metro, which is in the middle of a major expansion. The company needs foreign equipment to build its infrastructure, and while its trains are built in a Russian factory, many of the parts are bought overseas.
Metro users who buy trips in bulk will also have to pay more, although the increase becomes proportionally smaller the more rides you buy.
From Feb. 1, a two-trip ticket will cost 100 rubles, up from 80; five trips will cost 180 rubles instead of 160; 11 trips will cost 360 rubles, up from 320; 20 trips will cost 580 rubles instead of 540; 40 trips will cost 1,160 rubles instead of 1,080 and 60 trips will cost 1,400 rubles, up from 1,300.
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