The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) expects to enter the European Union’s passenger transportation market as a low-cost carrier in the future, according to Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the chairman of the board of the company.
This was reported by the CFTS portal, citing the Liga Business publication.
"We have the ambition to become a low-cost carrier in Europe, meaning eventually entering that market," said Pertsovskyi. "We can acquire used rolling stock, modernize it, and – I am confident – create normal competition for the Europeans."
The implementation of these plans will be possible only after the construction of European standard-gauge railway tracks in Ukraine.
"Ukrzaliznytsia plans to focus on creating passenger hubs in cities such as Lviv, Uzhhorod, and Chernivtsi by laying European standard-gauge railway tracks there and connecting them with each other for convenient transfers. This is because these routes will remain interesting even when air travel becomes available. It will take a very long time to travel from Kyiv to Vienna by train, but traveling by night train or Intercity train from Lviv to Vienna, Prague, Krakow, or Warsaw could definitely be competitive," Pertsovskyi said.
In addition, according to him, "We all believe that we will become part of the European Union, so there will be a direct train and we will save an additional one or two hours at the border."
The European standard-gauge railway to Uzhhorod is almost ready. The next step is to construct a European standard-gauge railway to Lviv (Sknyliv), for which the European Union will allocate EUR 76 million.
