About 6,000 pieces of rolling stock are currently on the books of municipal electric transport enterprises in Ukraine. This is almost half the number in the early 1990s. The head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure’s Department of Municipal Transport, Viktor Hrytsenko, announced this, the CFTS portal reports, citing the UNIAN news agency.
According to Hrytsenko, more than 6,000 pieces of rolling stock are currently on the books of municipal electric transport enterprises in Ukraine, including 2,278 trams, 2,929 trolleybuses, and 1,180 subway cars.
For comparison, there were 12,300 trams and trolleybuses in Ukraine in 1991. This means that the fleet of rolling stock in the country has reduced by 51% since the country attained independence.
As for the technical condition of electric transport, about 87% of the total rolling stock, including: 96% of trams, 76% of trolleybuses, 80% of subway cars, have passed the end of their service lives. For comparison, Hrytsenko cited data from 1991, when the proportion of electric vehicles nearing the end of their service lives was only 27%.
“The urban transport infrastructure in Ukraine is also far from being in the best condition. This applies to both tram tracks and the catenary systems for trams and trolleybuses, as well as to traction electrical substations,” Hrytsenko said.
According to the Hrytsenko, a considerable amount of money is needed to get out of this crisis and renew the fleet of electric transport in Ukraine. “For example, more than USD 3 billion will be needed to upgrade the entire tram fleet in Ukraine. This is a very large investment. There are no such funds in Ukraine,” he said.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, Kyiv plans to purchase more than 400 trams, trolleybuses, and electric buses by the year 2023. The municipal authorities want to participate in the Green Cities program, which is financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The program provides for granting loans totaling EUR 320 million. It was reported earlier this month that Kyiv intends to ask the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for EUR 110 million for purchase of trams and subway cars.
