The volume of cargo that the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) transports from Ukraine to Europe increased by one-third in 2017, compared with 2016. Ukrzaliznytsia’s acting head Yevhen Kravtsov announced this during a visit to the construction site of the Beskyd tunnel, the CFTS reports.
In particular, according to Ukrzaliznytsia, the volume of transportation of goods to the European Union increased by more than 3% and the volume of transportation of goods to Ukraine increased by more than 30% last year. More than 20 million tons of cargoes were transported by rail through the Beskyd tunnel alone. These volumes demonstrate that demand and a need for transportation of goods to and from Europe exist.
According to Kravtsov, after the new tunnel is commissioned, the capacity will increase from 47 to 100 pairs of trains per day, compared with the capacity of the single-track tunnel. In addition, the speed of trains through the tunnel will increase from 40 to 60 kilometers per hour.
As the CFTS reported, the volume of export cargo traffic through Ukrainian seaports is falling while the volumes of import and transit cargo traffic are increasing. Out of the total volume of cargoes that was handled by seaports, 7.62 million tons were export cargoes (-3.2%), 1.981 million tons were import cargoes (+ 57.6%), 863,000 were transit cargoes (+ 57.8%), and 71,000 tons were domestic cargoes (+19.8%).
