The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (JSC Ukrzaliznytsia) plans to launch a pilot project involving creation of a single scheme for controlling the movement of gondola cars of various ownership forms in early March, the CFTS portal reports.
Ukrzaliznytsia believes that the project will facilitate effective use of the infrastructure at train stations from which empty freight cars originate, eliminate queues, and improve the operating indicators of freight cars.
“Gondola cars from the rolling stocks of various owners will be accumulated. This process will be managed by Ukrzaliznytsia. After that, the gondola cars will be sent to loading stations. Thus, the railway will be able to make the most efficient use of the infrastructure at the train stations from which empty freight cars originate and prevent queues. Ultimately, everyone – the railway and operators of rolling stock – should win,” Ukrzaliznytsia’s Operations Director Viacheslav Yeremin said.
According to him, every freight car owner currently manages its own fleet.
This pilot project already has the support of the largest freight transport operators, including the Lemtrans and DTEK companies.
According to Andrii Zuikov, the head of the logistics and transport department at DTEK LLC, such a client-oriented pilot project should ease the situation involving delivery of goods to ports and immediately reduce the time it takes to form freight train trains.
In the future, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to extend this this approach to the management of grain carrier traffic with the aim of increasing the efficiency of transportation of grain cargoes.
As CFTS reported earlier, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to offer entire unit trains via electronic auctions. Ukrzaliznytsia is so satisfied with the results of the first lease of railcars via the ProZorro auction platform that it plans to auction entire unit trains. "Bidding for the right to use railcars is currently proceeding as planned. We are cooperating well with the ProZorro team. Their two electronic platforms are involved in the process. We are hoping that activity among customers will increase in the system in the near future because we plan to offer not only small lots of 5 and 10 railcars, but also unit trains. We will offer 50 grain carriers and 100 gondola cars at auctions at a time. Of these, 50 gondola cars will be part of a unit train," said Artur Sukholitko, the deputy director of the Transport Logistics Center, which is a division of Ukrzaliznytsia.
