The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (JSC Ukrzaliznytsia) added 3,351 new freight cars to its fleet in 2018. According to the company, this was the most significant increase of its fleet in the past 25 years, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the company, the total number includes 3,318 gondola cars and 33 container flatcars.
“Such a significant addition was last made to the fleet of freight cars in the period of 1992-1993. The company has embarked on large-scale renewal, modernization, and increase of capital investments, and the significant results of this approach are showing,” Ukrzaliznytsia’s head Yevhen Kravtsov said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Thursday.
However, the company actually received fewer railcars than it planned. As the CFTS portal reported at the beginning of last year, Ukrzaliznytsia planned to manufacture 3,600 freight cars by the end of 2018.
It should be noted that 2018 was generally a successful year for Ukrainian railcar manufacturers. As the CFTS portal previously reported, production of freight cars at the Kryukov Railcar Building Works increased by 83% to 3,686 while the Karpaty plant produced 1,000 railcars in 2018.
However, according to experts, Ukrzaliznytsia needs to increase the pace of renewal of its railcar and locomotive fleet. In particular, according to Pavlo Rudenko, a consultant with CFTS Consulting, the issue of providing freight forwarders with railcars “remains open.”
