Ukrainian Railways (UZ) has received its first load of rails from French producer Saarstahl Rail SAS. The delivery consisted of an approximate one thousand tonnes of rails, but as part of the underlying intergovernmental agreement between France and Ukraine, the latter will get 19,000 tonnes in total.
The new French-made rails are supposed to help UZ implement “ambitious infrastructure development plans” for 2025.
“After the occupation of Mariupol, we lost the only Ukrainian rail manufacturer – the Azovstal steelworks”, explained UZ board chairman Oleksandr Pertsovsky. “And it is thanks to our international partners that we receive this scarce product and continue to restore and support the railway infrastructure.”
Vital connections
“Rails from the first batch will be used in March-April of this year to carry out major repairs to the track on the Viytivtsi – Volochysk and Fastiv-2 – Ustinivka sections – these are the routes of high-speed trains to Lviv and Dnipro”, the chairman added. “We are grateful to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and French partners for supporting the implementation of this project and expect that the entire supply will be delivered to Ukraine by the beginning of autumn 2025.”
Maryna Denysiuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development, points out that the delivered broad-gauge rails will help restore infrastructure damaged by the war. She says that Ukraine will be able to “ensure traffic safety, sustainable logistics, and vital connections between regions in times of war.”
With the currently supplied rails, UZ will be able to restore 145 kilometres of rail. In particular, major repairs will be carried out in the most important directions: Lviv – Uzhhorod, Kyiv – Lviv – EU border, Kyiv – Odesa, Kyiv – Dnipro and Kyiv – Kharkiv.
First successful experience
As part of the agreement between France and Ukraine, UZ received a loan of 37,6 million euros for 35 years at 0.0161 per cent per annum. UZ will not need to pay for this loan for the first 14 years and will thus use the rails practically free of charge. The operator says that this “is the first successful experience for Ukrainian Railways of attracting such a long-term preferential loan.”
At the same time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is funding the purchase of another 30,000 tonnes of rails, and UZ received 25,000 tonnes of rails from Japan.
