Ukraine’s railways operator Ukrzaliznytsia in January-August 2018 (as of August 23) bought 2,287 freight cars, including 450 from third-party manufacturers, the company’s press service reported citing Finance and Economics Director Andriy Riazantsev.
“Ukrzaliznytsia’s investment in rolling stock upgrades is ahead of the company’s income. This year we have already spent UAH 1.5 billion more in investment than the sum of total deductions from freight transportation tariffs to our investment account,” he said.
In general, since early 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia has already purchased 2,287 freight cars, of which 1,837 wagons built on the company’s own production facilities.
According to Riazantsev, 20% of over 27,000 open-top wagons forming the company’s working rolling stock is high-quality equipment.
At the same time, the company says Ukrzaliznytsia’s rolling stock in the Ukrainian market of transportation by rail accounts for only 40% of the total stock available.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia in the six months of 2018 built 1,740 freight cars, or more than 34% of the total number of all built in this period in Ukraine.
In 2017, it bought 2,721 freight cars, including 2,606 built at the company’s own production facilities.
Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia since the start of the current year has expanded the fleet of its gondola cars by 1,750, including 1,300 cars built at own plants of Ukrzaliznytsia, acting Board Chairman Yevhen Kravtsov has said.
“We carried out the deregulation of the wagon component of the tariff. We keep promises and increase the fleet of gondola cars. 1,750 cars have already arrived in the regional branches, 50 more gondola cars and a fitting platform are expected at the end of June,” Kravtsov wrote on his Facebook page.
He recalled that this year, in general, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to build 3,600 cars at its own plants.
“In the near future, we will put into operation a fitting platform for the transportation of containers built at the Ukrzaliznytsia’s plant. Earlier we bought them, now we are producing them at our facilities,” Kravtsov said.
In addition, the head of Ukrzaliznytsia said that before the end of the year Paniutynsky car-repair plant plans to start the release of the most popular wagons – grain carriers.
“Design documentation is already being developed, and later we expect the first sample and tests,” he added.
At the same time, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan said last week at a meeting with the European Business Association (EBA) that he does not support the independent building of the car fleet by Ukrzaliznytsia.
“We must invest in the tracks and locomotives,” the minister said, giving his vision of investment priorities.
In his opinion, private freight carriers should in
Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia and General Electric plan to announce an official tender to service locomotives under the cooperation contract.
According to a posting on the website of the Ukrainian company, acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov at a meeting with President and CEO General Electric Transportation Rafael Santana on Thursday discussed some urgent issues of cooperation in upgrade and modernization of the locomotive fleet of Ukrzaliznytsia under the partnership contract signed early this year.
Ukrzaliznytsia and General Electric are preparing for the announcement of an official tender to service TE33A Evolution Series locomotives that will be delivered to Ukrzaliznytsia under the cooperation contract, the company said.
Ukrzaliznytsia also said that during the negotiations General Electric presented options for financing of next phases for the successful implementation of the long-term cooperation contract.
GENERAL ELECTRIC, LOCOMOTIVES, SERVICE, TENDER, UKRZALIZNYTSIA
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is considering the issue of a credit line of EUR 50 million to help Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukravtodor eliminate bottlenecks in European transport networks. According to the bank, the matter concerns projects of small transport infrastructure in volume of up to EUR 20 million.
The investments are intended to improve interaction within the framework of the Eastern Neighborhood and provide substantial support for small-scale but locally significant projects. It is also expected that such financing will improve traffic safety.
The EIB document states that the total cost of this framework project is approximately EUR 110 million, but other sources of co-financing are not specified.
Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia plans to create a separate rail car company, which in 2018 and 2019 would buy 3,500 cars each year using a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said at the UZ: Investor Day 2018 conference in Odesa on Wednesday.
“This project will be implemented via the creation of a specialized rail car company, which would receive gondola cars bought for borrowed funds to its balance sheet.
According to a posting on the EBRD’s website, the project was pending approval of the bank’s board on May 23. The bank told Interfax-Ukraine that the consideration of the issue was postponed, and the new date will be announced later.
It is planned that the EBRD would provide a $150 million loan. The total cost of the project is $240.7 million. Some of the sum would be financed by Ukrzaliznytsia and thanks to grants under technical cooperation programs.
The bank said that it is planned to acquire around 6,500 gondola cars with the total need of the company of around 24,000 gondola cars.
Kravtsov said that if a separate company is created, the cars could be used on the market as a private fleet and earn more than the rolling stock of Ukrzaliznytsia.
“For us, these will be unprecedented conditions of work, when we are able to set real tariffs for transportation, which will allow us to talk about the payback of rolling stock and profit for investors. This project gives a signal to other potential investors to invest in Ukrzaliznytsia’s projects and show, how one can earn on them,” Kravtsov said.
He also added that to implement these projects, Ukrzaliznytsia is already negotiating with international companies that operate in the U.S. and European markets.
Transportation on the Kyiv city-the Boryspil international airport route could reach 3.8 million passengers in 2019, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.
The company reported that as of May 22, around 25% of total works to build the high-speed railway line between Kyiv city and the airport was completed. A project on construction of the railway track was designed, the land parcels were allocated, and initial works on the site were started.
“According to preliminary data, the volume of passenger transportation by rail in 2019 will be 3.8 million passengers, with a further increase in 2020 to 4.1 million, in 2021 – to almost 4.4 million,” the company said.
In the future, it is planned to build a railway bridge 272 meters long over the Kyiv-Kharkiv highway, build passenger platforms with sheds near the Boryspil airport, completely equip the ground station and build new railroad tracks with a total length of 3.7 km.
The deadline for finishing construction is December 1, 2018. The total cost of the project is UAH 583.3 million.
Transportation of passengers by rail between Kyiv and the Boryspil airport is organized along the route between the stations Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky – Kyiv-Demiyivsky – Darnytsia – the station named after Kirpa – the Boryspil airport (Terminal D). In the future, another stop is planned near the railway overpass in the area of the highway Kyiv-Kharkiv. The rail buses of the Polish company PESA will run the route.
The estimated travel time will be 35-40 minutes. The train dwell time at the destination stations is 10 minutes.
