Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan says Ukrainian state-run railways operator JSC Ukrzaliznytsia should focus only on the comprehensive development of transportation services.
“Ukrzaliznytsia will never be able to make quality locomotives on its own. It will never make high-quality rail cars. When they talk about their passenger trains, I’m sorry, it’s past century technology: railway cars from the 1950s and locomotives from 1960s-1970s,” he said.
According to Omelyan, this technology lag causes frequent delays.
“This is absurd when in the 21st century the maximum speed of freight rail traffic is 40 km-h, while passenger trains go only up to 100 km-h at best,” said Omelyan, adding that Ukrzaliznytsia should make profit only in transportation services while forgetting about the rest. (UNIAN/Business World Magazine)