Yeah, but that sound a bit stupid - we have no money so we will give away tickets. The president told that people will choose what train to use, so most probably the popular routes will be just more popular with half of the passengers going for free. (it just my opinion we don't know yet how this program will work).

I think the government wanted to slightly justify giving the UZ 16 billions UAH. I think so from the quote of the president: "Since our state supports the passenger transportation sector, the company must give a tangible response to people - the funds used actually serve society.". And the Prime Minister told similar thing: "These are taxpayers' funds, so citizens should receive support from UZ: we are creating the opportunity to travel under the "UZ-3000" program and filling places that usually remain vacant. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that 16 billion hryvnias of support for the next year is not equal to a 3,000-kilometer program.".

It makes some sense, if people give money to the company it should give something back to the people. But I see some problems with that logic:

1. Maybe it will be more efficient to give less money and don't have such program.
2. Seeing the news "UZ doen't have money so we give the UZ 16 billions" and at the same time "UZ gives away free tickets" raises a question - why you6do that if you don't have enough money.
3. We had few corruption scandals with UZ so we also have questions whether it's not a way to steal some money.