The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine initiates the renewal of the Ukrzaliznytsia rolling stock, improving the quality and safety of freight and passenger transportation, as well as the launch of new internal and international routes. Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii announced during the presentation of To do list - scheduled infrastructure and transport change by the end of 2019, during 2020 and the next 5 years.

The event took place on November 12, 2019, at Kharkiv Railway Station, one of the most important transport hubs in eastern Ukraine. While communicating with journalists, the Minister told about the transformations that would affect Ukrzaliznytsia, examined the objects potentially interesting for concession at the railway station.

“Ukrzaliznytsia has returned to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and we will bring about the change within the company at last. This should be done immediately, as the average age of the locomotives is more than 40 years, the level of deterioration of freight and passenger cars - more than 85%, passenger transportation and railway stations are unprofitable for the railway,” noticed Vladyslav Kryklii.

According to the Minister, it is the rent or sale of property, not used by the railway in the core activity, as well as the concession of individual objects can become a source of additional funds for the planned rolling stock retrofitting and infrastructure improvement. According to preliminary estimates, the value of Ukrzaliznytsia's non-core assets is over UAH 10 billion.

The concession of the railway stations of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytsky, Chop, which is being worked out by the Ministry together with partners, will allow to transform them into convenient spaces with shopping areas, cafes and hotels, to provide a higher quality service for passengers and to increase the investment resource of Ukrzaliznytsia.

The Ministry of Infrastructure is planning the purchase of 2,000 freight and 26 passenger cars by Ukrzaliznytsia in 2020, concluding contracts for 40 locomotives and 200 electric locomotives, electrification of a 110 km track to accelerate the speed of trains, localization of traction production in Ukraine, thereby creating new jobs for Ukrainians.

After upgrading the rolling stock, it is planned to open new routes:

Traffic within Ukraine:

Uzhhorod - Kherson via Mylolaiv, Kryvyi Rih

Zaporizhhia - Ivano-Frankivsk via Dnipro

Zaporizhzhia - Chernivtsi

Kyiv - Kovel 

Kyiv - Zaporizhia via Krivyi Rih 

Lysychansk - Odesa 

Kyiv-Mykolaiv - Kherson

International traffic, in particular with the EU countries and the Republic of Belarus:

routes to Poland

joining the 4-capitals train the 5th capital (Tallinn)

Lviv - Minsk via Kovel, Brest

Homel – Kyiv

At the same time, it is planned to improve the level of service and comfort for passengers. To achieve the above-mentioned goals, it is planned to replace lighting in cars, update linen, improve the system of cleaning in trains in the next year. 

“One of the most important tasks set by the President and the Government is the creation of the safety infrastructure. This applies to both Ukrzaliznytsia and highways. So now we have to do our work quickly and efficiently in order to create a comfortable service for Ukrainians, to upgrade the transport industry and infrastructure to the European level,” underlined Vladyslav Kryklii.

For this purpose, within the framework of the implementation of the safety program at Ukrzaliznytsia in 2020, it is planned to equip entrances and approaches to railway crossings, to instal video surveillance systems at crossings, to install rail crossing automated devices at unsignalled crossings, to repair passenger platforms, tunnels, instal fencing at stations.