Air raid alerts, shelling, and energy restrictions have led to a deterioration in operational performance across the Ukrzaliznytsia network; as a result, the average freight car turnaround time from January through August of this year increased by 32.8% compared to the same period in 2025—to 8.4 days— and in September—by 42.9%, to 12.3 days, according to Valery Tkachov, deputy director of the Department of Transportation Technology and Commercial Operations at JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia.”
“These figures are linked to air raid alerts, traffic restrictions on certain sections, and security factors,” he emphasized at the 8th International Conference on “Production, Operation, and Repair of Rolling Stock” in Kyiv, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
According to him, as of now, the turnaround time for a half-car is 14.2 days, whereas in May and June, this figure was improved to 8.8 days from 10.6 days in January.
As for the turnaround time for tank cars, it stands at 19.5 days; for cement cars, 15.1 days; and for grain cars, 22.8 days.
The average technical speed of railcars on the network over the first eight months of this year was 44 km/h, which is 4.3% lower than during the same period last year, and in September it dropped to 41.8 km/h.
The section speed for January–August of this year was 10.9% lower than the corresponding figure for January–August of last year—38.4 km/h—and in September it dropped to 33.6 km/h.
The average train weight for January–August 2026 decreased by 3.3%—to 2,941 metric tons—and in September, it fell to 2,852 metric tons compared to September 2025.
Tkachov noted that the number of alarms increased by 92.5%—to 2,688.
“Ukrzaliznytsia has a clear action plan for how to survive, given that our revenues have fallen significantly, while expenses, unfortunately, remain roughly the same,” added the deputy director of the Department of Transportation Technology and Commercial Operations at JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia.”
He also noted that shippers must submit their transportation plans for November by October 23. Starting next month, “Ukrzaliznytsia” will revert to the plan-approval procedure used in 2022–2023, as the number of loaded railcars on the network heading toward western border crossings has reached nearly 20,000 units.
As previously reported, freight volumes transported by JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” from January through September 2026 totaled 106.39 million metric tons, which is 11.8% less than during the same period in 2025; in September, the decline reached 38%.
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION, LOGISTICS, railcar, RAILROAD, UKRZALIZNYTSIA
