The Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) plans to more than double the purchase of passenger cars to 50 in 2017. The company announced this in a statement, citing information provided by Ukrzaliznytsia board member Serhii Mykhalchuk.
"We plan to buy 50 passenger railcars and overhaul 200 in 2017," Mykhalchuk said.
Ukrzaliznytsia repaired 570 railcars last year. According to Mykhalchuk, the company’s compartment cars are currently in the worst condition. Therefore, Ukrzaliznytsia will pay most attention to repair of this type of passenger car.
In addition, according to him, Ukrzaliznytsia has introduced a new approach to organization of passenger transportation, and this has already yielded results. "Trains now idle between trips for no more than three hours, compared with about 7 hours previously. This means that the rolling stock is involved in transportation as much as possible. Sometimes, a train performs three trips per day. Thanks to this approach, 49 additional trains were scheduled during the winter holidays," Mykhalchuk said.
According to him, local authorities refunded Ukrzaliznytsia about 11% of the cost of transporting passengers entitled to transport benefits in 2016. This amount is less than UAH 50 million.
Ukrzaliznytsia also said that the profitability of passenger transportation on commuter trains has doubled since the company began conducting the experiment in which cashiers on commuter trains operate under video surveillance and under the protection of paramilitary security personnel. The experiment is being conducted on the Lviv and Southwestern railways.
