Ukrzaliznytsia continues to prepare for the implementation of the program to renew the fleet of freight cars and old ones from the railway tracks. So, on October 8, 2021, a draft order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine was published, which provides for a systematic limitation of the deadline and extension of the service life of freight cars.
According to the draft order, Ukrzaliznytsia will gradually limit the period for which the operation of the car can be extended, after the expiration of the period provided by the manufacturer, and the total age of the car.
As a result, freight cars that threaten traffic safety will be removed from the railways of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian carriage industry will receive additional orders for the construction of new ones.
“We will not operate wagons written off in other countries and delivered to us. Such rolling stock is an unconditional threat to traffic safety, so we will eliminate it from the rails. For this, a clear program was developed that will help to significantly update the fleet of freight cars and establish clear boundaries for its operation, ”said Valeriy Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Commercial Department of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC.
Now the registered fleet of Ukrainian freight cars is more than 200 thousand units, of which 26.5 thousand are blocked in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass and Crimea. Out of the 174 thousand available freight cars, 53.8% have expired standard service life.
As a result, worn-out freight cars end up in unscheduled repairs practically after every unloading or before every loading, which negatively affects the turnover of cars and disrupts the normal technology of the transportation process. In addition, this situation negatively affects traffic safety: in 2020, 479 accidents were registered in the railway transport of Ukraine, of which 126 accidents were caused by collisions, derailments of the rolling stock of railway transport.
Recall that Ukrzaliznytsia has developed a comprehensive program for the renewal of the freight car fleet until 2028. It was approved at a meeting of the Anti-Crisis Headquarters to restore the sustainable operation of the enterprise, which took place on September 30 under the chairmanship of the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov. The program, in particular, provides for a gradual limitation of the service life of freight cars: gondola cars - from 44 to 22 years, grain carriers - from 45 to 30 years.
