The State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) plans to reintroduce Skoda double-decker passenger trains into operation. Ukrzaliznytsia’s acting head Oleksandr Zavhorodnyi announced this at a meeting with journalists, the CFTS correspondent reports.
According to him, one of the trains will be launched by 1 December 2015 and the second will be launched by 1 March 2016.
"The trains have been idling for 1.5 years, during which each train has not generated about UAH 320 million in revenue from transportation of passengers," said Zavhorodnyi.
Ukrzaliznytsia is currently considering the routes on which the trains will operate. The possible routes are Poltava-Kremenchug-Kiev and Kremenchug-Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkov.
As reported, the Skoda double-decker interregional train is designed for high-speed transportation of passengers in cars with increased levels of comfort. It has a maximum operating speed of 160 kilometers per hour. The total number of seats on the train is 636, including 46 first-class and 590 second-class seats.
In total, Ukraine bought the two Skoda double-decker trains in preparation for the 2012 European football championship. The cost of each train was about EUR 20 million.
