The Kyiv-Riga train launched by Ukrzaliznytsia, also passing through Minsk (Belarus) and Vilnius (Lithuania), from January 30, 2019 will make more trips – once in four days instead of once a week as it is done today, Ukrzaliznytsia Board Chairman Yevhen Kravtsov has written on his Facebook page.
“The occupancy rate from Kyiv to Riga is 49% and backwards – 40%. These are good figures, which are evidence of popularity of the train going to European capitals and its economic feasibility for the Ukrainian railways,” he said on Friday.
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.
In January, it is planned to hold talks with Estonian railways Eesti Raudtee on the extension of the train’s route to Tallinn.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia in 2018 transported 55.9 million passengers in long-haul trains, which is 7.7%, or almost 4 million people, more than in 2017. According to the company’s website, the company managed to increase railroad passenger traffic despite the decrease in the number of cars. “We used many trains after the night trip as day trains. And then again on a night trip. First of all, it concerns the period of peak traffic, long weekends. We put on about 40 additional trains for these Christmas and New Year holidays, more than 300 trips,” acting head of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said.
At the same time, he stressed that to preserve the traffic volume, the company must annually update the passenger car fleet with at least 200 cars. “Unfortunately, due to low tariffs and unprofitability of this transportation, in this matter we need support from the state, namely, the allocation of funds from the budget of Ukraine for the purchase of passenger wagons as provided for by the law on railway transport,” he stressed.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia plans to reconstruct a railway stations located in Vydubychi and integrate the new platform for the railway express train running from the Kyiv Pasazhyrsky station through Darnytsia to Boryspil International Airport.
“The Kyiv Boryspil Express stop on Vydubychi will appear this year after the reconstruction of the railway station,” acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said on the company’s website.
The company has set itself the task of creating a single logistic space by integrating the Vydubychi railway station with the subway and bus station, for which it is planned to build a new high platform for stopping the Kyiv Boryspil Express train, equip crossings, reconstruct two existing platforms and build a shed over them.
“Pre-design works are underway and three options for the reconstruction of this transport hub are being considered, where various types of transport will be integrated. The optimal one will be chosen in the near future,” Kravtsov said.
He also said that all reconstruction options imply high standards of security and modern elements of logistics, including for people with limited mobility.
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.
