Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Subway commuters in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, have hoarded more than half the total amount of ride tokens in circulation, the Minsk-Novosti news agency said citing Rostislav Yurenya, the subway director.

About 700,000 of the city’s 1.3 million subway tokens are being retained, Yurenya said, according to the report. “This situation became obvious in the end of October when the reserves of tokens at subway ticket offices dried up.”

Transport fares were increased on Nov. 1, when the price of a one-way trip on the Minsk subway rose 37 percent to 1,300 rubles (15 U.S. cents). As it would take at least four months to coin an additional 500,000 tokens, paper tickets may be introduced in the interim, Minsk-Novosti cited Yurenya as saying.

--Editors: Emma O’Brien, Andrew Langley

To contact the reporter on this story: Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at akudrytski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net