Provision of transportation services should become the focus area for PJSC Ukrzaliznytsya (Ukrainian Railways) and the corporation should do its best to develop this type of activity, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan claimed, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“Ukrzaliznytsya will not be able to manufacture high-quality locomotives or railway cars on its own. Whenever they start telling about their own passenger trains, pardon me – that is last century’s technology. Those railway cars are manufactured based on designs from the 1950s, locomotives feature the design ideas popular in the 1960s and the 1970s,” the minister said live on Channel 5’s air on Wednesday evening, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Omelyan then suggests that these ideas then lead to transportation stalls and speed reduction, both of which are evident on Ukraine’s railways today.
“The highest speed of freight traffic is 40 km per hour, whereas that of passenger trains is up to 100 km per hour. Both of those figures in the 21st century are nothing short of ridiculous. Ukrzaliznytsya should aim to derive revenues exclusively from transportation services, everything else is simply irrelevant,” Omelyan explained.
