Ukrzaliznytsia in 2019 will start talks with Estonia’s Eesti Raudtee railway company on extension of the Kyiv-Riga train to Tallinn.
It was planned to start the talks in December, although they were postponed. Now representatives of Eesti Raudtee and Ukrzaliznytsia are to meet on January 17, 2019, Spokesperson of Eesti Raudtee Monika Lilles said.
The weekly Kyiv-Minsk-Vilnius-Riga train was launched on September 28, 2018. At the end of Nov, Ukrzaliznytsia said that then the train was running at about zero cost effectiveness. However, given the “low season” and only the recent launch, Ukrzaliznytsia considered the launch of this train successful.
According to the company, after eight trips the train carried 2,100 passengers, of which 1,000 – to/from Lithuania and 950 – to/from Latvia.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has put up for sale four lots of scrap ferrous metal with the total starting price of UAH 260 million at the platform of state-owned enterprise (SOE) ProZorro.Sales.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine said in a Wednesday press release that the auction is scheduled for January 11, 2019. Bids can be submitted before January 10.
Ukrzaliznytsia started selling its assets via the ProZorro.Sales platform in pursuance of government resolution No. 1054 dated November 22, 2017.
“These are the first lots for the sale of Ukrzaliznytsia’s assets, which appeared in the ProZorro.Sales system, and immediately the large quantities of a strategically important resource for metallurgists – scrap metal. This is a really important precedent, since Ukrzaliznytsia is the largest owner of scrap metal in Ukraine. And now the company can carry out its sales at the market price set during the bidding through the ProZorro.Sales system,” Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov said.
In turn, acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said that the company sees several positive aspects in this event.
“Firstly, the sale of scrap metal from railways is our help to the domestic metallurgical industry. After all, for these first tenders, Ukrzaliznytsia put more scrap metal than Ukrainian metallurgists imported this year up for sale. However, the main thing is that using scrap metal, for the first time Ukrzaliznytsia has made the way envisaged in the rules of managing property that the government approved and brought to us. For us, this is now an effective mechanism for effectively managing the property of the company to increase its earning power and improve the customer service,” he said.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has presented a catalog with a list of spare parts that require replacement to potential Ukrainian manufacturers.
According to a posting on the website of the company, thanks to replacement of imported spare parts used in the railway sector, Ukraine’s economy could receive some UAH 1.6 billion and 8,000 additional jobs in 2019.
Ukrzaliznytsia urgently needs replacement of spare parts, first of all, those produced by the Russian Federation. Therefore, we are coming up with a proposal to national manufacturers – to create an alternative to the products of the aggressor country. As an example: in 2019, the company needs 230 positions of these spare parts – this is 575,000 units and UAH 1.6 billion for the Ukrainian economy,” acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said.
Now Ukrzaliznytsia is negotiating with the state-run electronic trading platform ProZorro.Sales to provide it with the opportunity of entering into framework agreements with suppliers for a period of three years.
“For domestic enterprises, this is better than one-time orders. Then the owners will be interested to invest in the development of their production facilities and understand the volume of products for the long term,” Kravtsov said.
In addition, next year, Ukrzaliznytsia is ready to further invest UAH 13.5 billion in addition to the level of investment in 2018. This is UAH 8.1 billion in capex and UAH 5.4 billion in current repairs.
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia on November 14, 2018 launched the Mukachevo-Budapest train on the European gauge in a test mode, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has written on his Facebook page.
“We are planning to launch a regular communication in the near future… The next direction is to Slovakia, and also using the European gauge. This was recently agreed with the Slovak colleague,” the minister said.
According to him, with its convenient communication with many Ukrainian cities and EU countries, Mukachevo can become a major railway hub, and not just a passenger one.
As reported, in September, Ukrzaliznytsia postponed the launch of the Mukachevo-Budapest train until the end of 2018 and planned for 2019 the new Kyiv-Berlin train.
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia is holding talks about the electrification of the track section from Kyiv to the Boryspil International Airport, acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said on the sidelines of the event devoted to the final stage of the selection of projects at Future of Mobility Lab.UZ edition on October 29.
According to him, in case of passenger traffic growth, the company plans to add a diesel train produced by Kriukov Car Building Works on the Central Railway Station – Boryspil Airport route.
“Depending on the demand in the project launch process, we are planning to increase the number of trains and cars of trains. We have an agreement with the KCBW [Kriukov Car Building Works] for the supply of diesel trains. Perhaps they will be exploited in this section in the future, if there is a demand,” he said.
According to Kravtsov, the project’s payback period is 9-10 years, and the planned load during the first year should be at least 80% of the capacity.
“Now we are coordinating the schedule, since after the launch of this express train, the section between Darnytsia and Boryspil will be one of the most stressful in Ukraine, especially considering the large number of passengers, including commuter traffic. We plan that in the first stages of launching the frequency in the peak hours will be about 30-40 minutes, in non-peak hours – 40 minutes or an hour and a half,” Kravtsov said.
He also said that now Ukrzaliznytsia is discussing the need for night trains with the airport – the need for such trips is being discussed, taking into account the small number of night flights from the airport.
The train will be launched by the end of November, but there is no exact date yet, since there are a number of remarks from Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, which should be taken into account, Kravtsov said.
He also said that negotiations are now being completed with the State Aviation Service of Ukraine and UkSATSE regarding the electrification of the section from Kyiv to Boryspil.
“As soon as this is done, it will simplify the issue of using various types of trains on this route,” he said.
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia in November 2018 will launch an express train to the Boryspil international airport (Kyiv region).
“In February was the project, in May – the start of works, and in October – a test launch of the train. In November it will be the launch of the express train,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman said on his Twitter account on Thursday.
The prime minister said that the cost of the project was about UAH 580 million, recalling that the estimated cost of the “infamous Air Express” in 2010 amounted to UAH 3.2 billion.
Groysman also pointed out the convenience of creating a covered gallery between the airport terminal and express platform.
As reported, Transportation on the Kyiv city-the Boryspil international airport route could reach 3.8 million passengers in 2019, according to Ukrzaliznytsia. The company expects that with a ticket price of UAH 80 the payback period for the project will near 10 years. Ukrzaliznytsia does not deny the scenario of increasing the cost of travel, depending on the demand for the service, as well as the factors that negatively affect its production cost for the company.
The estimated travel time will be 35-40 minutes.
