Construction of the railway section Mostiska-Skniliv from the state border with Poland to Lviv will start this year, said Deputy Prime Minister for recovery – Minister of community development, territories and infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov.
“Construction of the first large section of the European gauge, Mostyska-Skniliv. We will connect our railroad with the European network. This is the first project, we will build it already this year together with European partners and donors,” he told at the forum “Ukraine. Year 2024” on Sunday.
In addition, this year it is planned to open several checkpoints for road transport on the border with Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Poland. The process of modernization of 23 checkpoints by the efforts of the Restoration Agency is also ongoing, Kubrakov added.
As reported, the construction of a narrow Euroway (1435 mm) on the Mostiska-Skniliv direction was planned to start back in 2020. Also in 2020, the government included this project in the list of priority investment projects until 2023. The project is estimated at $20.8 million.
Ukrzaliznytsia planned to complete work on the track construction project by the end of 2023.
Ukrzaliznytsia JSC is introducing additional flights between Kyiv, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk on February 16-18 in response to increased demand, the company reports.
“Although February is traditionally considered a ‘low’ season of mobility, we have recorded an increase in demand for travel on February 16-18. Therefore, we are already promptly scheduling additional flights between Kyiv, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk, which will consist exclusively of new cars,” Ukrzaliznytsia said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.
Reportedly, the number of seats on the Kyiv-Lviv-Ivano-Frankivsk route will be increased by train #195/196, which will depart Kyiv on February 16 and 18 at 07:37, Lviv at 14:46-15:06, and arrive in Ivano-Frankivsk at 18:18. The train will depart back from Ivano-Frankivsk on February 16 and 18 at 19:25, Lviv at 21:54 – 23:05, arriving in Kyiv the next day at 06:19.
“On February 16 and 18, train #192/191 Lviv-Kyiv will depart from Lviv to Kyiv, departing from the city of Lviv at 11:55 a.m. and arriving in the capital at 22:09 p.m.,” Ukrzaliznytsia informs.
In 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to put 120 grain hoppers for conventional and European gauge into operation, Gennady Maydanyk, director of the commercial work department of UZ, said at a meeting of the export office at UZ on Wednesday.
According to him, the recently introduced hopper cars for 1520 and 1435 mm gauge transportation are already being tested.
“By the end of the year, the company plans to add 120 of these grain hoppers to the fleet of the Transportation Logistics Center branch. The main advantage of the cars is that they can travel across Ukraine and abroad without overloading,” explained the UZ representative.
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 148.4 million tons of cargo by all types of traffic, down 1.5% from 2022 and due to the availability of pre-war January-February 2022 in the comparison database, the company’s website reports.
According to it, from March to December 2023, UZ transported an average of 23% more cargo per month than in the same period in 2022.
It is specified that November was a record month last year, when the company transported 14.1 million tons of cargo.
According to the release, 22.3 million tons of cargo were transported to seaports for further export last year, while 34.4 million tons were exported via land crossings.
Domestic transportation in 2023 increased by 11.4% to 84.8 million tons compared to 2022.
According to UZ, the leaders in terms of cargo volumes in 2023 were grains – 30.6 million tons (+5.9%), construction materials – 29.6 million tons (+29.6%), iron and manganese ore – 27.5 million tons (-13.2%), coal – 26.2 million tons (-11.2%) and ferrous metals – 8.2 million tons (-10.6%).
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC transported 30.58 million tons of grain cargo, up 5.9%, or 1.708 million tons, from a year earlier, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of UZ, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
According to him, 22.729 mln tons of grain crops were transported for export by rail, which is 178 thsd tonnes more than in 2022. Of these, 14.324 mln tonnes (-4.9%) were shipped to the ports, and 8 mln 405 thsd tonnes (+12.2%) – to the western border crossings.
“Before the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain by neighboring countries was imposed in April, 900 thsd tonnes to 1 mln tonnes of grain were transported by rail per month. After the ban was imposed, the volume was almost halved. The work of ports in 2023 was significantly affected by the uncertainty of the “grain corridor”, Tkachev stated.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 63 million tons of cargo for export in 2023.
In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) transported 201.26 thousand twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs), up 34% from 2022 and in line with the figures for 2019 before the war, Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the company’s commercial department, said on Wednesday at a meeting on the development of intermodal transportation.
According to him, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, UZ’s container transportation had been growing by 11-22% for four years, including 14% in 2021, but after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, it fell by 46% to 150 thousand TEUs.
“If in 2021 we already reached 279,792 thousand TEU, in 2022 we fell to 150 thousand TEU, that is, 46%,” Tkachev emphasized.
He noted that the rapid recovery of container transportation in 2023 was due to the blocking of Ukrainian seaports.
“If you look at the traffic, 62% of all container transportation is export, 19% is domestic transportation, and 19% is import,” he described the market.
The UZ representative added that grain is the most popular containerized cargo, accounting for 49%. Ferrous metals are in second place (17%), followed by oil cake (14%) and oil (10%).
Tkachev emphasized that the 2023 figures, although positive, are significantly lower than those set out in the development strategy of Ukrzaliznytsia, which provided for the transportation of more than 1 million TEUs per year.
He reminded that in March 2023, UZ launched the intermodal train service, and almost 200 trains were sent.
At the same time, the deputy director of the commercial work department noted that after testing the counter-rail transportation to Poland in December 2023, problems with tariffication arose.
“We are still receiving invoices from the Polish side. There was an agreement on a comprehensive rate, but for some reason the Polish colleagues continue to adjust it, so we are now working with the Polish side to get a single comprehensive rate for this service, and then we will be able to work more rhythmically and transport container trains,” added Tkachev.
