Myanmar rail officials are saying that Mawlamyine to Yangon train tickets are sold out and then selling them on the black market for up to three times their face value.

The official price of a Mawlamyine to Yangon train ticket is 7,050 kyats but passengers are having to buy them on the black market from railway police and railway staff at up to 20,000 kyats.

On the same line ordinary tickets that officially cost 3,550 kyats are being sold for 7,500 kyats.

Currently, many people are choosing to travel by train between Mawlamyine and Yangon by train because people doing the journey by road face very long delays at the Nyaunkharshay X-ray checkpoint, said a train passenger forced to pay over the odds on the black market for a ticket between Mawlamyine and Yangon because there were no tickets available at the box office

After waiting in long queues to buy tickets most passengers were told that the upper-class tickets were sold out and they could only buy ordinary-class tickets. But, those upper-class tickets could still be bought from railway staff on the black market at increased rates.

A passenger said that because railway police and railway staff were selling tickets on the black market it was making it hard for passengers to buy tickets at their face value from the ticket office. Tickets go on sale three days before the day of departure, but passengers were finding that even when they tried to buy tickets three days in advance they were sold out.

Advance tickets are more expensive on the black market but if a passenger wants to travel that day they are forced to pay an exorbitant price to buy their tickets on the black marke