The draft financial plan of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) for 2015 provides for additional revenues of more than UAH 7.4 billion from freight transportation and UAH 251 million from passenger transportation. This was announced by the press service of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Valerii Voschevskyi, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
Ukrzaliznytsia’s financial plan was approved at a meeting of the government committee on infrastructure development and environmental policy. Its adoption will facilitate stabilization of Ukrzaliznytsia’s financial situation, the press service said.
According to Voschevskyi, Ukraine lost railway assets worth about UAH 2 billion as a result of the annexation of the Crimea. In addition, nearly 1,800 pieces of infrastructure have been destroyed on the Donetsk railway as a result of the fighting in the Donbass.
According to representatives of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrzaliznytsia has lost more than UAH 5 billion in revenue as a result of a fall in freight transport volumes. Freight transport volumes fell by more than 12% in 2014 (a 13.9% fall is expected in 2015). Ukrainian railways’ losses from passenger transportation have reached UAH 3 billion.
At the same time, according to Voschevskyi, Ukrzaliznytsia has been operating efficiently in recent weeks. According to him, the new leadership of Ukrzaliznytsia understands what needs to be done to address problematic issues and reform the industry.
He instructed Minister of Infrastructure Andrii Pyvovarskyi and Ukrzaliznytsia’s acting head Oleksandr Zavhorodnyi to organize a national congress of railway workers with the aim of clarifying and discussing the reform of the country’s railway industry.
