MOSCOW, August 16 (RIA Novosti) - Passengers injured when a Moscow-St. Petersburg train derailed Monday following a suspected terrorist bombing will receive compensation from a travel insurer totaling up to $10,000 each, a spokeswoman for Russian Railways said.
The Nevsky Express hurtled off the rails near Veliky Novgorod on the country's busiest rail line Monday evening. Carriages were overturned and 60 people were injured, with over 30 hospitalized. A two-meter (six-foot) crater was left in the track.
"Depending on the degree of injuries, compensation will amount to up to 250,000 rubles [$9,800]," Marieta Tkhaganova said.
The size of compensations will also depend on whether the passengers had voluntary insurances in addition to mandatory coverage.
Payments by mandatory insurance, which costs just over 2 rubles ($0.09) and is included in the cost of all railway tickets, are up to 12,000 rubles ($471) depending on the severity of injuries. Voluntary insurance costs up to 40 rubles ($1.50) depending on the distance covered.
As delays continued throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, passengers on the route popular with businessmen and tourists had their work and holiday plans disrupted and missed flights. Two passengers said they missed a non-refundable flight to Montenegro, and one family missed their plane to Egypt, forfeiting a $3,000 package holiday.
But Tkhaganova said they would not receive compensations. "It was not the fault of Russian Railways that they [the passengers] were behind schedule, which is why they will not be paid anything," she said.
The blast occurred just before a railway bridge over a road, but the train, traveling at around 190 kilometers per hour (118 mph), had sufficient momentum to make it over the bridge before running into the embankment, avoiding potentially massive fatalities.
Investigators said the bomb that derailed the train had a yield of three kilograms (about seven pounds) of TNT equivalent, and identikits were compiled Tuesday of two people seen near the tracks shortly before the explosion.
Several versions of the attack were being considered, including the involvement of Chechen militants, Russian ultra-nationalists, or simply hooliganism.
