German railway experts will work at the Odesa seaport over the next six weeks. The Odesa Seaport Authority plans to solve the problem of "bottleneck" at the Odesa Port railway station with the help of experts from DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH.
At a meeting at the Odesa Seaport Authority on February 1, German experts agreed issues of cooperation with representatives of the port authority, the Odesa Railway (a regional division of The Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia)), and the port’s Association of Stevedoring Companies.
"The Odesa Railway has commissioned a specialized scientific institution for rail transport to perform the relevant research at the initiative of the Odesa Port Authority. In addition, the Odesa division of the Ukrainian Seaports Authority has its own vision for development of its railway infrastructure and operation of its railway dispatch system. A parallel study by our German partners will allow us to compare several visions, which will obviously complement and enrich each other and allow us to develop the optimal strategy for development of Odesa Port train station and adoption of decisions by the Ukrainian Seaport Authority, Ukrzaliznytsia, and the relevant government ministry," the Odesa Port Authority’s head Ihor Tkachuk said.
According to Anastas Kokkin, the general director of DP KTO (the operator of the container terminal at the Quarantine Mole), DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH has concluded an agreement on provision of consulting services related to research and analysis of railway infrastructure modernization and optimization of railway operations at the seaport.
The German company’s representative Matthias Seifert explained that the work of the Deutsche Bahn experts is currently structured into several phases. The first phase involves studying the port’s railway infrastructure and the technology for intra-port operations, taking account of the volumes, nomenclature, seasonal factors, and the existing model for coordinating the operations of the port, roads, and stevedoring companies. Next, the experts plan to develop a "roadmap" for improving the efficiency of the port’s railway infrastructure and interaction between the port authority and the railway administration.
"Our recommendations should indicate ways to increase the capacity of the port. I emphasize that we will also take account of the work of local experts when preparing our conclusions. I hope that our recommendations will be realistic and that they can yield results immediately. We will try to proceed from the situation on the ground and refrain from proposals based on super-expensive projects," Seifert said.
The processing capacity of port’s terminals is almost twice the capacity of the Odesa-Port railway station.
To solve the problem of the railway stations at the port, the Odesa Railway plans to create a directorate for development of these stations.
