Railway transport of Ukraine

Electric locomotive VL8 near Mariupol

Rail transport plays a significant role in ensuring the vital activity of the Ukrainian economy ^[1] , part of which accounts for 82% of freight turnover (excluding pipelines) and almost 40% of passenger traffic carried out by all modes of transport. The length of the railway lines managed by the State Administration of Ukraine Railways amounted to almost 22 thousand km in 2010, the number of freight fleet cars was 124.5 thousand ^[1] . Depreciation of fixed assets of railways in 2010 was 80%, almost 100% depreciation was in pellet trucks, dump cars, mineral carriers. The degree of wear of electric locomotives in 2010 was 89.3% (1860 electric locomotives), of mainline locomotives - 99.3% (2493 diesel locomotives) ^[1] . The length of electrified railway lines is 9,250 km.

On the territory of Ukraine there is also a powerful railway transport of industrial enterprises, which plays an extremely important role in the production sector. The total deployed length of these railways at the end of 1997 was 28 thousand km.

The country's railway network has a track gauge of 1,520 mm , there are also narrow gauge lines : Borzhavskaya (123 km), Vygodskaya (7 km), Antonovka - Zarechnoye (106 km), Rudnitsa - Golovanevsk (130 km).

Railway junctions with other states: with Russia (25 lines cross the border), Belarus (7 lines cross the border), Moldova (14 lines cross the border, crossings at the stations Kuchurgan, Slobodka, Basarabyaska ^[2] , Mogilyov-Podolsky , Kelmens , Mamalyga) total gauge; with Romania (4 crossing points), Hungary ( Chop and Batevo stations), Slovakia ( Chop and Uzhgorod stations), Poland (6 stations) - different gauge (1520 and 1435 mm), border crossings with a change in gauge. There is a railway ferry crossing Chernomorsk - Varna (Bulgaria). Not all joints are involved, part does not function for various reasons.

The territory now occupied by the Ukrainian state was formerly part of the USSR , and previously partly in the Russian Empire and some territories in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . It was in the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century that the first railway lines appeared on this territory, then in the 20th century the development of the railway network in the modern territory of Ukraine took place.

The oldest lines on the roads: On the Lviv railway Przemysl - Lviv (1861) ^[3] . On the Odessa railway Odessa - Balta and Razdelnaya - Kuchurgan (1865) ^[4] . On the Donetsk railway Lozovaya - Martsevo (1869) ^[5] . On the Dnieper railway Lozovaya - Aleksandrovsk with a branch to Nizhnedneprovsk (1873) ^[6] .

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, a network of narrow-gauge forestry lines was built in the Carpathian, Carpathian and Transcarpathian regions. In 1921, the Lugansk – Lutugino line ^{[5] was built} , in 1935 the Krasnoarmeyskoye – Dobropolye line ^[5] , and in 1940–41 Starobelsk – Kondrashevskaya – Dolzhanskaya ^[5] .

In the post-war period, the pace of construction of new railways decreased, about 5 thousand km were laid. In the same period, inactive trunk lines and a significant part of timber railways ceased to exist. However, funds were invested in the reconstruction and increase in the throughput of the main lines.

In the 1950s, the Ukrainian SSR ranked first among the Union republics in terms of railroad saturation.

In the 1960s, active electrification of roads of the Ukrainian SSR began .

On August 24, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Act of Independence of Ukraine , according to which all property located within the borders of the former Ukrainian SSR , including railways, became the property of the newly formed state of Ukraine . During the transition period, the management of adjacent sections of the railway was transferred to the administration of the South-West Road . On December 14, 1991 , the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine issued Decree No. 356, according to which the state administration of railway transport of Ukraine was created, receiving 6 state railways subordinate.