The number of passengers who used buses to travel abroad in 2023 decreased to 7.5 million passengers, compared to 8.5 million in 2022.
Such data Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Sergiy Derkach made public, opening the forum of the reform of international bus transportation.
According to him, in 2020 only 1.1 million passengers traveled abroad by buses.
“This is a large passenger traffic today for Ukraine. For example, Ukrzaliznytsia carried 2 million passengers last year,” Derkach said.
He emphasized that bus service today, given the lack of air service, has become one of the main for trips from Ukraine abroad.
The average duration of travel by bus in international traffic is 31 hours of which about 7 hours passengers spend waiting at the border.
“This is exactly what the state should change and what you and I should change. That is why today we will present our reform: electronic tools that will primarily help the passenger and carriers,” Derkach said.
According to him, the register of international transportation will soon be available for passengers, in which each passenger will be able to find his route, check the carrier and going to his site to buy a ticket. A carrier’s office is being created for carriers, where they will be able to quickly open new routes without paperwork and bureaucratic procedures.
Deputy Minister expressed hope that the reform of intercity bus transportation will help to increase budget revenues. According to his data, about 25% of carriers operate in the market without paying taxes, and the budget receives up to UAH 500 million annually.
Passengers have bought 183,500 bags of Gemini tea worth over UAH 3.6 million on Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) trains, of which UAH 1 million will be used to purchase Ukrainian FPV drones Hrom, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said on his Telegram account.
“Everyone who travels by train can help the Defense Forces. To do this, you need to buy Gemini tea. Part of the funds from each bag will be used to buy drones for the military,” the minister emphasized.
UZ noted that such tea can be ordered in the app, chatbot, or on the website, as well as directly on the train (except for Intercity+). The cost of the drink is UAH 20, of which UAH 5.5 from each bag goes to raise funds that will be transferred through the UNITED24 platform for the purchase of Ukrainian-made FPV copters “Thunder”. The cost of one such drone is UAH 21 thousand.
Passengers of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) can now send their cars from Kyiv to Uzhgorod and back by train No. 29/30 Kyiv – Uzhgorod, UZ reports in its Telegram channel.
It is noted that the cost of transportation is about UAH 1.4 thousand per ton of weight. You can arrange transportation of a car at the box office of the stations.
In addition, it is reported that car carriers are already running on the routes Kyiv – Lvov – Kyiv, Dnepr – Lvov – Dnepr, Kharkiv – Lvov – Kharkiv and Lvov – Odessa – Lviv.
According to the company, UZ has already transported 1,863 vehicles by car carriers during the war.
Passengers carried in Jan-August of 2021, in mln
