The volume of ferry traffic between Ukraine and Georgia (Ilyichevsk-Poti/Batumi) increased by 62.5% to 165,500 tons in the period of January-June 2017 compared with the corresponding period of 2016, the Ukrainian Seaport Authority has announced.
According to the port authority, 94 ferries transported 2,859 railcars from the port of Chornomorsk to Georgia in the period of January-June 2017, an increase of 1,083 or 60.98% compared with the corresponding period of 2016.
These data were presented at a meeting of the board of directors for joint operation of the Ilyichevsk-Varna and Varna-Poti/Batumi-Ilyichevsk ferry crossings, which took place in Batumi from September 11 to 12.
The heads of the Ukrferry shipping company, the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia), the Batumi seaport, and the Poti seaport, as well as representatives of the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies, and Communications, ferry operators, and the Ukrainian Seaport Authority attended the meeting.
The participants in the meeting paid particular attention to the importance of electronic document management in organization of railway ferry operations through ports.
Ferry operators requested access to Ukrzaliznytsia’s electronic database for railcars traveling to port stations for loading onto ferries and railcars arriving at port stations for loading onto ferries.
They agreed that it was necessary to amend the legislative acts on direct rail-ferry traffic between Ukraine, Georgia, and Bulgaria.
Meetings of the board of directors for joint operation of the Ilyichevsk-Varna and Varna-Poti/Batumi-Ilyichevsk ferry crossings are held annually. The previous meeting of the board was held in Odesa in 2016 and the next one is scheduled to be held in Bulgaria in November 2018.
