Rail passenger transport in Ukraine, which is currently monopolized by Ukrzaliznytsia, requires the introduction of a Public Service Obligations (PSO) mechanism – predictable compensation for subsidized transport, according to Yulia Sirko, first deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on transport and infrastructure (Holos faction).
“There are many passengers who pay either 0 or 50%, for example, as UBD and so on. We have a number of beneficiaries who use transport, including rail, and this is, de facto, not compensated by the state or local authorities,“ she said at an expert discussion held by the Center for Transportation Strategies on ”Rail Freight Tariffs in 2025-2026” on Wednesday.
According to her, without the implementation of a set of PSO laws, Ukrzaliznytsia will be forced to constantly turn to the government and the Verkhovna Rada for funding for unprofitable passenger transportation.
Sirk added that PSOs will make this area transparent and recalled that Ukraine has committed to implementing these standards as part of the Ukraine Facility program.
“Unfortunately, passenger transportation continues to be unprofitable. This requires Ukrzaliznytsia to optimize all processes, optimize its operational activities, understand capital investments for 3-5 years, and understand unprofitability for 3-5 years,” the first deputy chair of the relevant parliamentary committee also noted.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia’s operating loss from intercity and international passenger transportation last year amounted to UAH 8.81 billion with revenues of UAH 10.67 billion, while from suburban transportation it amounted to UAH 9.31 billion with revenues of UAH 0.52 billion.
The Verkhovna Rada recently amended the state budget for 2025 and allocated UAH 8 billion in bank income tax to Ukrzaliznytsia, which should have gone to the Kyiv budget. In May this year, Ukrzaliznytsia also received UAH 4.3 billion from the budget to support passenger transportation during the war.
During the summer of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 1.6% more passengers than last summer – 8.07 million, with the number of passengers transported in August reaching 2 million 845 thousand people.
According to the company’s Facebook post on Monday, twice as many military personnel and their families were transported through the special reserve – 130,600.
During the summer of 2025, 1.6 times more children’s groups were also transported: 328,000 children with their parents on group applications and 16,243 children with their parents traveled in children’s cars.
“From June to August, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 3,895 passengers to safety from Sumy, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions,” Ukrzaliznytsia added.
The company emphasized that despite all the challenges this summer—a critical shortage of cars lost due to shelling and natural aging, a surge in demand during the peak summer season — 39 additional trains and groups of carriages were assigned, which allowed for the transportation of an additional 627,000 passengers and reduced the load on regular routes.
Earlier, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 639,700 passengers between August 18 and 24, which is 0.8% less than a week ago. According to statistics, the total volume of transportation still remained higher than last year: during the reporting week, the excess was 3.9%, or 23,700 passengers. The average number of passengers carried per car from August 18 to 24 was 467, which is 6.4% more than in the same period in 2024.
As reported, in the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia increased passenger traffic by 1.2% compared to the first half of 2024, to 13.52 million. This is 23% more than in January-June 2023, as previously reported by Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi on Facebook.
Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ), the monopoly railway operator, transported 644,000 passengers between August 11 and 17, which is 4.8% or almost 30,000 more than in the same period in 2024.
“As in previous peak weeks, there are many destinations where demand exceeds supply by 5-7 times. We must continue to order new cars, find resources for even more repairs, and move forward with the program to increase the number of Intercity trains!” wrote UZ Chairman Alexander Pertsovsky on his Facebook page.
According to the company, compared to the previous week, transportation also increased by 1.1%.
According to statistics, the number of passengers carried by one car per week reached an average of 476, which is 8.2% more than in the same period in 2024.
In addition, the number of passengers in children’s groups increased 1.5 times to 29,800, and the number of military personnel transported through the special reserve increased 2.4 times to 12,500.
Separately, the statistics noted that the largest number of searches last week were for destinations in both directions on the Kyiv-Lviv route – 151,600 requests against 21,800 seats. The Kyiv-Odesa route had 92,300 requests against 19,100 available seats, Kyiv-Kharkiv – 69,200 searches and 18,500 seats, Kyiv-Peremyshl – 65,000 requests against 22,800 available seats, and Kyiv-Dnipro – 55,000 searches and 16,900 seats.
The current solution from Ukrzaliznytsia is to increase the efficiency of car utilization, namely, after arriving from their main route, cars go on their next trip, managing to make another “loop” between their main route.
As reported, in the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia increased passenger traffic by 1.2% compared to the first half of 2024, to 13.52 million. This is 23% more than in January-June 2023, Pertsovsky previously reported on Facebook.
Ukrzaliznytsia carried 625,000 passengers between July 28 and August 3, which is 4.4% or 26,000 more than during the same period in 2024, according to the company’s head, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, in the first issue of the weekly operational statistics on passenger traffic.
“It is important for us to be as transparent as possible so that you can see how tickets for popular destinations are being sold, so we are starting a new tradition: we will share detailed passenger transport statistics on a weekly basis during this peak period,” Pertsovsky said on his Facebook page, responding to criticism of the company for ticket shortages.
According to him, it was possible to increase transportation while reducing the number of cars by nine (three were lost and six became completely unsuitable for operation due to their age limit) through more efficient use of the fleet: on average, one car carried 467 passengers, compared to 436 last year, which is 7.1% more.
Percovsky also emphasized that the number of passengers in children’s groups this year increased by 51% to 30,410 people during the reporting week.
In addition, UZ transported 10,000 military personnel through a special reserve, which is 2.1 times more than during the same period last year.
According to the company’s statistics, the largest number of requests in the app was recorded for train No. 95/96 Kyiv-Rakhiv: 143,100 requests and 5,700 monitoring requests with 1,950 seats available; train No. 81/82 Kyiv-Yasinya: 131,000 requests and 4,700 monitoring checks with 2,810 seats available; and train No. 57/58 Kyiv-Uzhhorod: 112,000 requests and 4,400 monitoring checks with 1,250 seats available.
On these trains, 27% to 33.5% of seats are available for free sale, while 6.5% to 11% are reserved for carpooling, and the rest are for group transportation.
UZ clarified that the highest percentage of children’s groups was on train No. 95/96 Kyiv — Rakhiv — 62% of seats in group bookings, followed by No. 81/82 Kyiv — Uzhhorod — 60% and No. 57/58 Kyiv — Yasinya — 59%.
The company notes that since last year, 95 cars have reached the point where they require expensive repairs, while as of August 3, 1,488 cars were in service on long-distance trains.
As reported, in the first half of 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia increased passenger traffic by 1.2% compared to the first half of 2024, to 13.52 million. This is 23% more than in January-June 2024, as previously reported by the company’s CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi on Facebook.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) in January-May this year carried in communication with the European Union 2.3 times more passengers (786 thousand) compared to the same period of 2022, reported the press service of UZ in Telegram-channel.
In addition, for five months carried 6.4% more passengers than for the same periods of 2016-2019, when in communication with the EU and back by rail was carried a total of 735 thousand people, calculated in the press service.
“In 5 months of 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia carried more passengers in communication with the EU than in the same period cumulatively during the previous four (dokovidnye) years,” said in the message of UZ on Wednesday.
It is specified that in the five months of 2016 was carried 19.8 thousand passengers, 2017 – 98.2 thousand, 2018 – 230.4 thousand, 2019 – 387.2 thousand, 2020 – 171.7 thousand people. Data for January-May 2021 are not given, but in 2022 during this period UZ carried 341.6 thousand passengers in the EU.
The Company notes that there is a clear trend of Ukrainians returning home: the number of people who have left the country since the beginning of 2023 is 369 thousand, and in the opposite direction – to Ukraine – 417 thousand people.
In the UZ also clarified that if in 2016 in communication with the EU were only 8 trains, now their number has increased to 27, of which 15 formed “Ukrzaliznytsia”, and the rest – foreign carriers.
The company recalled that given the increase in demand since last year due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, UZ is expanding connections with other countries, in particular launched seven new trains: № 19/20, № 23/24 “Kiev-Khelm”, № 32/31 “Zaporozhye-Permyshl”, № 53/54, № 89/90 “Kiev-Permyshl”, № 73/74 “Kharkiv-Permyshl” and № 93/94 “Kharkiv-Khelm”.
