EU report: Ukrainian Railways unreformed, in critical financial situation

Ukraine's railway giant JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) has not yet been reformed and is in a critical financial situation.

"The financial situation of the unreformed Ukrainian Railways company remains critical," says the EU's Association Implementation Report on Ukraine, dated November 27.

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It also says that in the area of transport, the key draft laws on market opening, including on railway and on inland waterway transport, dangerous goods and multimodal transport have not been adopted.

Similarly, the action plan for implementation of the National Transport Strategy, as well as the Complex Action Plan for reforming infrastructure projects and important to provide the basis for the introduction of EU standards for infrastructure management, are still not in place.

Ukrzaliznytsia's financial results

• Ukrzaliznytsia in January-June 2020 posted 2020 UAH 8.79 billion (US$307.8 million) in losses, while its profit in the first half of 2019 was estimated at UAH 1 billion (US$35 million).
• In particular, income from freight traffic in January-June 2020 decreased by 15%, to UAH 30.6 billion (US$1.07 billion), from earnings from passenger and luggage transportation fell by 56%, to UAH 1.9 billion (US$66.5 million).
• JSC Ukrzaliznytsia plans to allocate UAH 4.7 billion (US$164.6 million) in 2021 for the overhaul of railcars and locomotives.