Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) plans to increase passenger traffic by 10% to 27.5 million passengers in 2024, according to a presentation made by the company’s CEO Yevhen Lyaschenko during a chat with journalists on Thursday.
At the same time, revenue from passenger transportation is expected to grow to UAH 10.6 billion in 2024, up from UAH 9.3 billion last year and UAH 5.3 billion a year earlier.
The growth in passenger traffic is driven by the launch of trains on international routes, according to a presentation by Ukrzaliznytsia. In particular, revenues from international passenger transportation amounted to UAH 2.6 billion in 2023, compared to UAH 1 billion in 2022. In fact, 2.1 million passengers were transported, compared to 1.1 million in 2022 and 0.04 million in 2021. In 2024, UZ expects to carry 2.3 million passengers, generating UAH 3.5 billion in revenue.
“International transportation, unlike domestic transportation, is profitable. We break even only on the Lviv-Rava-Ruska-Warsaw route (operated by the Polish company SKPL, which receives payment from UZ for services – IF-U),” Lyashchenko said.
In 2024, UZ also expects to increase domestic transportation to 25.2 million passengers, up from 22.8 million last year. Revenue from their transportation is expected to increase from UAH 6.7 billion in 2023 to UAH 7.2 billion.
The company reminded that in 2023, 15 new passenger trains were appointed, increasing the number of domestic routes to 66. In addition, three new international routes were launched: Vienna-Budapest-Chop, Lviv-Rava-Ruska-Warsaw, and Chop-Prague (operated by the Czech railway operator RegioJet – IF-U). The number of international routes in 2023 reached 25.
UZ plans to overhaul 63 passenger cars in 2024, which will increase the capacity of the passenger service. Also, the overhaul of the laundry in Kyiv, which will improve the quality of washing and the volume of laundry processing.
The seat availability monitoring feature, which is currently being tested in the UZ app, will be launched in full. The company also plans to integrate online scoreboards with a GPS system, refine loyalty programs, and update the classification of cars depending on their brand, which will make it easier for passengers to find the right category for them depending on the range of services.
