Ukrainian Railways

The Public JSC Ukrainian Railways or PAT 'Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ)' is a state-owned joint-stock company administering railway infrastructure and rail transport in Ukraine; a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transportation in the country. Ukrainian Railways is the world's sixth largest rail passenger transporter and world's seventh largest freight transporter. As of 2020, the total length of the main broad-gauge (5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways) railroad network was 19,787 km, making it the 13th largest in the world. Ukraine also has many stretches of standard-gauge railway (1,435 mm), and is currently working to expand these in order to improve its connections to the European Union.[5]

In 2015, Ukrainian Railways was transformed through a merger of a state agency and a state-owned enterprise into a public joint stock company owned by the state. Ukraine's State Administration of Railroad Transportation is subordinated to the Ministry of Infrastructure, administering the railways through the six territorial railway companies that immediately control and provide of all aspects of the railroad transportation and maintenance under the common Ukrzaliznytsia brand. The general director of the administration is appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.[6] The company employs more than 191,700 people throughout the country.[7]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Railways continued operating to evacuate and rescue millions of people from cities out of the country. The rail links between Ukraine and Russia have been blown up by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to prevent their use by Russians, but the railways have continued operating within Ukraine and between Ukraine and Poland, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, and Slovakia. One long-abandoned cross-border rail link with Poland was quickly reconstructed, and others which had been used only for freight have been quickly opened for passenger use.[8] The rail service has evacuated[9] over two million people from Ukraine on special evacuation trains. After some of the Black Sea ports became unavailable for grain export, rail became an export route to the rest of Europe. Several rail sections in the North and South became unusable.[10]

Company structure

Infrastructure

Rolling stock

Ukrzaliznytsia has several repair factories capable of producing locomotives and railcars. In addition there is a separate Kryukiv Railcar Engineering Factory and Dnieper Railcar Engineering that also produce railroad rolling stock for Ukrzaliznytsia and other companies for public transportation.

In November 2010, UZ agreed to buy 10 high-speed HRCS2 multiple unit interurban trainsets from Hyundai Rotem, with the prospect of a much larger order or joint venture for local production.[18] The first two trains would be delivered in February 2012, two more in April and another two in May, when they will start operating.[19] They will be rated as Inter City+ and will be connecting Kyiv with Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv, and at a later stage with Dnipro and Odesa.[20]

In July 2011 UZ announced plans to buy 433 electric freight locomotives; 292 2EL4s from Transmashholding

Classification of passenger trains (railway lines)

On 27 April 2011 in accordance with order No. 504/2011 rail industry specialists developed a new classification system of passenger trains for Ukrainian Railways.[38] The development of a new classification system for passenger trains in Ukraine was made necessary by the need to inform customers (passengers) about the level of service quality they could expect to find in various passenger trains. The new system is based on the class of train and carriages.

Given the quality of the service provided UZ asked the following classes of passenger trains:

The advantages of the new classification system include full compliance with the classification of the European Union, compliance with Ukrainian and English names and abbreviations, linguistic and semantic consistency and clarity for customers in Ukraine and compatibility with existing and future tariff policy. The system is also not far displaced from the previous classification system used for passenger trains on the territory of Ukraine.

• Daytime passenger lines:
• Euro City (EC) – Express (min. 90 km/h) daytime services on international routes which should offer a very high level of service and comfort. First and standard classes.
• Inter City+ (IC+) – Express (min. 90 km/h) daytime services on domestic routes which should offer a very high level of service and comfort. First and standard classes. These services are currently operated by

Science and education

The R&D branch of Ukrainian Railways is the Research and Design and Technological Institute of Railway Transport (NDKTI), which conducts scientific and technological research, development, engineering and design for infrastructure, rolling stock, security, telecommunications and so forth. It publishes a quarterly journal, Railway Transport of Ukraine, where the latest insights and results of experiments are shared within the community of engineers, scientists and railway workers of Ukraine.[40]

The National Railway University in Dnipro currently has 10 faculties as well as a technical school, a business school and branches in Odesa and Lviv, 450 professors and 39 separate fields of study related to railway transport.

Directors

See also

• Rail transport in Ukraine
• Transport in Ukraine
• Railway electrification system

Bibliography

External links