Euro 2012 championship fo

Hosting the Euro 2012 football championship (jointly with Poland) has forced Ukraine to invest in its severely outdated infrastructure and rolling stock. However, says Jerom Rozendaal, the planned restructuring of (UZ) is probably more important for the future of the railway.

T is mid-May when I board a part of the corridor between and Kryukov Wagon Plant has delivered a suburban train in Kiev heading east Kiev, two of four Ukrainian cities rake of coaches to be hauled by a DS3 I into the provinces. The train is hosting this summer’s European electric locomotive. overcrowded, and unable to find a seat, football championships. Thousands of Commentators agree that the I’m forced to stand in the corridor, but construction workers have been reduction in journey times is the the atmosphere instantly makes me working over the past year to overhaul biggest achievement of the Euro 2012 forget about this inconvenience. Most the outdated infrastructure, preparing preparations, dragging the country out passengers are on their way to their for the arrival of new of its Soviet past. This has required the dachas and are clearly in a good mood; trains that will transport football fans upgrading of 1500km of lines and a guitar player earns money singing between the four host cities. Ukrainian electrification of the 176km Poltava - Russian pop songs, while people are Railways (UZ) normally transports Lozovaya line, while existing selling all kind of products, from 140,000 passengers between the four electrification equipment has been vegetable seeds to newspapers. cities in June, but this year it expects to modified and stations have been The short trip to my destination 60km carry 222,000 during the games. rebuilt, the most notable being the outside Kiev costs just ƒ0.80 but soon Ahead of the football championships, ƒ102m renovation of ’s main stretches into a 2-hour journey. The the Ukrainian government signed a station. Soviet-era suburban train is forced to $US 307m deal with Hyundai Rotem for In addition, hundreds of curves on wait at small stations for long-distance the delivery of 10 HRCS2 emus. Six of the 22,000km broad-gauge network passenger trains coming from the them will be used during the football have been realigned to allow the new opposite direction. “They are working event, connecting Kiev with Kharkov, trains to reach their design speed of on the line,” says a fellow passenger. Donetsk and Lviv. The limited-stop 160km/h. Previously, the maximum “Only one of the two tracks is services will cut journey times by up to speed in Ukraine was 140km/h and operational. This work has been going 50%: instead of the usual 12 hours it only on three lines radiating from on for a year now, constantly causing takes to travel the 801km from Kiev to Kiev to Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, delays. If I have to be in Kiev for an Donetsk, it will take just seven. and Khutor-Mikhaylovskiy on the appointment, I ensure I leave plenty of UZ also purchased two double-deck Russian border on the line to Moscow. time.” CityElefant emus from Skoda for Other lines had a maximum speed of The track work causing delays is on ƒ39.8m, and Ukrainian producer 120km/h or less. “Without the European football The new HRCS2 emus will slash championships, these investments journey times between the four would never have been made,” says Ukrainian cities hosting Mr Alexander Kava, a railway advisor Euro 2012. to the Ukrainian government. “UZ does not normally have the opportunity to invest, especially not in passenger transport.” Although UZ carried 427 million passengers last year, these services are heavily loss-making, with ticket sales covering only 30% of costs on domestic inter-city services and only 8% for suburban routes, according to Kava. “Profits generated by freight operations are being used to cover losses in passenger transport,” he says. “This creates a deadlock, undermining investment in both passenger and freight transport.” In the long run this could jeopardise UZ’s successful freight business which moved almost 500 million tonnes last year. UZ has invested over ƒ1.6bn in Euro 2012 construction works, by far the largest investment since the country 36 IRJ June 2012 rces Ukraine to modernise

One of the two CityElefant double-deck trains resplendent with the Euro 2012 logo.

broke from the Soviet Union in 1991. 5 hours for the 627km journey. consequences for the future of the Following Ukrainian independence, However, the cuts to the night railway, which could play a vital role freight and passenger volumes services have upset a lot of Ukrainians in the of the nation’s economy. decreased significantly, which Kava who are used to travelling overnight At the beginning of March, Ukrainian says resulted in a huge surplus of and liked the fact they could avoid the president Viktor Yanukovich approved rolling stock. The reduction in traffic expense of spending a night in a hotel. a law which provides the legal has decreased the appetite for Yet the biggest challenge facing UZ framework to restructure UZ. investment in new trains over the will come from much-needed fares Within the next 10 years, UZ will past 20 years. increases. Fearing social unrest, Ukraine become a joint-stock state-owned “Currently up to 90% of the rolling has long resisted raising fares, resulting company, with subsidiaries for stock needs to be replaced,” Kava in very low domestic passenger fares. infrastructure management, freight continues. “For instance, UZ uses 500 A ticket for the 857km trip from Kiev to operations, long-distance and VL8 electric freight locomotives, which Moscow costs about ƒ100, compared international passenger, and more. were designed in 1953 and produced with just ƒ22 for a ticket for a 1014km “Because of the complex structure, from 1955 to 1967. This means the journey within Ukraine from Kiev to it is very difficult for private newest locomotive of this type is 45 Simferopol. entrepreneurs to enter the network,” years old. They have outlived their “But freight tariffs are outdated as says Kava. “To give you an example of lifespan twice over, and are highly well,” states Kava. “The philosophy the complexity, currently each of UZ’s inefficient.” dates from the early twentieth century, six regional railways has its own The new Hyundai and Skoda trains and assumes that transport should locomotives and rolling stock. If a train have enabled UZ to rationalise its have an equal share of the final cost from one railway travels on the track of operations between the four cities, all of price. The tariff for transporting oil is another, a difficult calculation has to be which except Lviv have populations of therefore much higher than that of sand made, demanding a lot of paperwork.” more than 1 million. In May, UZ or stone. From a modern marketing The new structure should sweep such announced plans to cut the number of point of view this makes no sense as complexities away and make the night trains by 25% in favour of a more transport costs are similar.” railway more attractive for private frequent day service. The new HRCS2 Although the Euro 2012 investments companies to develop both passenger trains will make three trips a day are a step forward, another recent and freight services, which would be a between Kiev and Lviv, each taking initiative should have more far reaching radical change in Ukraine. IRJ IRJ June 2012 37