Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has announced the arrival of a batch of trucks to Poland by rail from Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian and Polish parties have agreed on all issues of transportation and customs and border procedures. The trucks will continue to their destination by road,” UZ said on its Telegram channel on Sunday.
The company emphasized that the next shipments are planned to be regular and involve more modernized platforms in transportation.
UZ reminded that it had organized a container train between Ukraine and Poland to transport trucks. It runs on the route Sknyliv (Ukraine) – Slavków (Poland). To order the transportation of a truck by a container train from Ukraine, you need to contact the Liski Transport Service Center branch of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, and in the opposite direction – UZ Cargo Poland.
As reported, UZ sent the first container train with trucks to Poland on December 7. In this way, Ukrainian exporters tried to solve the problem of crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border, which had been blocked by Polish carriers for a month.
Starting December 10, Hungarian Railways will launch a new daytime direct train No. 143/146 Vienna – Chop – Vienna, which will provide convenient connections to Ukrainian night trains to Kyiv and Lutsk via Lviv and Rivne, Ukrzaliznytsia reported on its Telegram channel on Friday.
It is noted that the cost of a ticket from Kyiv to Vienna (2nd class seat car + compartment) will be about UAH 2.5 thousand, which is UAH 1 thousand cheaper than the direct Kyiv-Vienna connection by “ritz” class cars.
It is also noted that tickets for the domestic part of the trip can be purchased in the UZ app, chatbots, on the website and at station ticket offices, and for the Vienna-Chop-Vienna part – at international ticket offices of UZ or Austria.
“Ukrzaliznytsia added that it plans to launch online ticket sales to Hungary and Austria in the coming weeks.
According to UZ, border and customs operations will take place at the Chop station, with a transfer time of 2-2.5 hours.
“Passengers should not worry about their connection in Chop because of possible delays, as the transfer has been agreed upon: the train will always be waiting for all passengers,” the company said.
At the same time, it is specified that the train #146 Chop-Vienna will depart daily at 08:23, arriving in Budapest-Kelethé at 14:20 and in Vienna at 17:20.
On the way back, train #143 Vienna-Chop departs from the Austrian capital at 10:42, Budapest-Kelethé at 13:40 and arrives in Chop at 20:59.
As reported, on October 4, UZ announced the launch of a new rail service between Lviv and Warsaw via Rava-Ruska station, which is operated by the rolling stock of the Polish rail carrier SKPL.
Latvian port “Rīgas Universālais Termināls” (RUT) has received and unloaded the first test train with 1423 tons of Ukrainian rape, which were loaded into 54 containers, reported the Latvian edition ldz.lv.
According to the report, containers with Ukrainian grain were delivered by the subsidiary of SIA “LDZ CARGO” VAS “Latvijas dzelzceļš”. Containers from Ukraine arrived at the port of Riga through Kaunas intermodal railroad terminal, where they were loaded on the platforms of SIA “LDZ CARGO” to continue their journey to Riga. The Ukrainian rapeseed is currently being unloaded and stored at RUT warehouses.
“I am very pleased with the successful cooperation of Latvian Railways, Riga Port and Riga Universal Terminal, which provided the first delivery of Ukrainian grain cargoes by rail and transshipment in the port. Also in the future, Latvia will become an important ally of Ukraine, bringing Ukraine closer and integrating it into the European transportation network,” Latvian Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens said.
According to the information provided by the manager of the Freeport of Riga, Ansis Zeltins, since the beginning of the war the terminals of the Freeport of Riga have been actively working on the transportation of Ukrainian grain products. It was delivered to the port by road transport, which “is not comparable to railroad transport in terms of efficiency and volume of cargo transportation”.
Several terminals in the port of Riga by technological and infrastructural capabilities will be fully ready to receive and efficiently handle container trains with Ukrainian grain products. We hope that this first test of the entire logistics chain will be successful, and from now on we will regularly receive trains with Ukrainian grain in the Port of Riga,” he emphasized.
Receiving grain in containers is a new experience for the terminals of the Port of Riga, the publication noted.
Edgars Rudzitis, head of the wholesale warehouses department of RUT, said that the terminal is equipped and ready to receive grain container trains from Ukraine. It has the necessary technology to handle containers, warehouses and suitable infrastructure for bulk storage and cargo loading.
In spite of the new type of transshipment and difficulties, all works have been performed in the shortest possible time – the terminal’s possibilities have also allowed the carrier to fulfill its main requirement – to free the railway platforms quickly, so that they could be used for new shipments, he said.
Rinalds Plavnieks, Chairman of the Board of VAS “Latvijas dzelzceļš”, in turn, said that the Ukrainian grain delivered in containers is the first cargo from Ukraine, which will be transported through the company’s infrastructure.
“We have repeatedly confirmed that the capacities of Latvian railway infrastructure and SIA “LDZ CARGO” allow us to transport and handle large volumes of cargo, including grain from Ukraine. In accordance with the current situation, we have created new freight transportation options and plan to develop them in the future, so that the transportation of grain and other products between Ukraine and Latvia can be carried out regularly,” assured the cargo carrier.
Containers were shipped from Ukraine on September 25, on October 8 they were reloaded on the platforms of SIA “LDZ CARGO” in Kaunas, and on October 11 the platforms arrived to the port of Riga and unloading began at the Riga universal terminal. Railway transportation was organized by SIA “LDZ CARGO” together with the customer SIA “LTG Cargo Ukraine” under a cooperation agreement concluded in November 2022.
KP “Kharkiv subway” on July 13 announced a tender for insurance of train drivers against accidents during the service trip, reported in the system of electronic public procurement Prozorro.
The expected cost is UAH 29,682 thousand.
Documents for participation are accepted until July 21, 2023.
“Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) is launching a test flight of the “Kyiv-Warsaw” train with standard “wide” passenger cars in order to obtain the Polish side’s final permission to increase the number of trips and, respectively, seats on this route by two or three times, the press service of UZ said.
According to its data the purpose of the test is to confirm the compatibility of standard passenger cars of UZ with the modernized infrastructure of Polish Railways. The current stage of the project is the final one.
On Wednesday, May 31, 14 standard passenger cars of size 1-BM leave Kiev, which in Jagodina will be converted to euro bogies for “narrow” europeways (1435 mm).
“During my first trip to Poland as chairman of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia in the delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction of Ukraine – Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Alexander Kubrakov, we agreed to finalize this project. Earlier, all the tests were carried out, and we realized: our standard cars can freely pass the test run, after which we will get the “green light” from the Polish side. This will allow in two or three times to increase the supply of seats for direct communication between the Ukrainian and Polish capitals, “- quoted in a press release, the head of the board of UZ Eugene Lyashchenko.
Reportedly, UZ has already engaged all RIC-class cars in its fleet (Regolamento Internazionale Carrozze – Italian). In addition, the company asked European partners to transfer new “narrow” cars, but it will take more than two years to order and build such cars. “This did not stop Ukrainian railroad workers, as the demand of our passengers prompts them to find non-standard solutions. Almost a year ago UZ initiated and conducted work with Polish railroad workers on this project realization”, – words of the UZ board member Alexander Pertsovsky are cited in the report.
There were several rounds of negotiations and agreements between the two sides on the issue of compatibility, received technical approval of the Polish regulator UTK (Urząd Transportu Kolejowego). At the request of the Polish side, measurements of the dimensions of each car were carried out jointly.
As noted, the number of seats on the direct flight of the train “Kyiv-Warsaw” is limited at the moment, as the Polish railroaders let in only a train equipped with “narrow” RIC-cars with three-seat compartments.
According to the press service, the direct flight Kiev-Warsaw-Kiev continues to enjoy a rush demand. “Every day only in the mobile application UZ registers more than 3 thousand requests from passengers who are looking for tickets in this service, which is 10 times more than the availability of seats,” – states the company.
As reported there are 42 RIC cars in the fleet of UZ, two of which have been purchased from Krukiv Wagon Works.
In order to increase the number of trips to Poland from Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of Russia, UZ has launched new routes. In particular, “wide” routes have been retained on the route from Kiev to Chełm. Two daily flights conveniently connect with Polish flights to Warsaw. There are also night flights between Kiev and Peremyshl (two sleeper flights in addition to the two Intercity+ flights). Direct flights are launched from Kharkiv to Chelm, from Zaporizhzhya, Dnipro, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky, Ternopil and Lviv to Peremyshl.
Non-rail carriages Vienna – Kiev, which departed from Vienna (Austria) on May 7, are delayed in transit for 6 hours due to a transport accident on the Hungarian railroad, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) said on Facetbook on Monday.
As the company notes, after arriving at the Chop station, the cars will be included in the train number 82 Uzhgorod – Kiev and will arrive in the capital on May 9 (instead of May 8 at 19.30) as part of the train number 750.
“We draw the attention of Ukrainian passengers: the delay will also affect return trains to Vienna. Please take this into account when planning connections and departures from Budapest airport”, – pointed out in the UZ.
As reported, on Sunday morning, nine cars of the Hungarian 35-car freight train with iron ore derailed between stations Újfehértó and Hajdúhadház. Hungarian railroad workers had just begun to lift the wagons. Thus, the restoration of the railroad track and the contact network will last at least one day.
It is specified that train traffic between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó is suspended. Hungarian Railways offers interchanges by substitute bus, and Hungarian and Austrian Intercity trains between Budapest and Zahony will run between Budapest and Nyiregyház via Miskolc with long travel times.
