The State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) plans to upgrade 340 kilometers of tracks, overhaul 440 kilometers of roadbeds, and perform medium repairs on 350 kilometers of roadbeds next year. The head of Ukrzaliznytsia’s main department of track management, Yevhen Yurkovskyi, announced this in an interview with the UNIAN news agency.

Yurkovskyi said that these were still preliminary plans that could change depending on funding.

In addition, according to him, these plans currently lag behind the annual requirement for repairs, but they will ensure performance of the volume of work necessary to guarantee safety.

In general, according to Yurkovskyi, Ukrzaliznytsia needs to upgrade 800 kilometers of tracks, overhaul about 1,000 kilometers, perform medium repairs on 800-1,000 kilometers, and rehabilitate 750-800 kilometers in its network annually. "These volumes allow them to be in good shape, so to speak, and avoid accumulation of overdue repairs,” the official said.

According to Yurkovskyi, Ukrzaliznytsia upgraded 274 kilometers of tracks, overhauled 567 kilometers, performed medium repair work on 936 kilometers, and rehabilitated 452 kilometers during the first 11 months of 2013. It also installed 231 sets of new switches, replaced 380, and repaired 688.