The Ukrzaliznytsia public joint railway company’s international freight transport volume fell in the first four months of 2016.
Ukrzaliznytsia’s international freight transport volume reduced by 8 million tons or 13% to 54.3 million tons in the first four months of 2016, compared with the corresponding period of 2015. Its international freight turnover also fell by 14.6% from 44.5 to 38 billion ton-kilometers.
At the same time, the company’s domestic freight transport volume increased by 10 million tons or 1.2-fold to 52 million tons in in the first four months of 2016. The domestic freight turnover increased 1.2-fold to 21 billion ton-kilometers.
As a result, the share of international freight transport volume decreased from 59% of Ukrzaliznytsia’s total freight transport volume in the period of January-April 2015 to 51% in the corresponding period of 2016.
As the CFTS portal reported, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian has proposed stripping Ukrzaliznytsia of the right to grant discounts on freight rates and transferring this right to an independent regulator.
"As part of the reform of Ukrzaliznytsia, we want to establish a separate independent agency to regulate tariffs in addition to creating a railway administration that will actually be responsible for formulating policy on the railways. It is not just about discounts, it is generally about the system for determining rates, to ensure that neither the ministry nor Ukrzaliznytsia has influence on it," Omelian said.
According to him, this way it will be possible to create an efficient market in rail infrastructure, allow private operators into the sector, and attract investors.
