Ukrzaliznytsia explained how the loss of railcars will affect its operations this summer
This year's summer passenger travel season in Ukraine will be significantly more challenging than the previous one due to a sharp increase in demand and a substantial reduction in the number of available railcars.
This was reported by Ukrzaliznytsia.
During the full-scale invasion, Russian troops destroyed 46 of Ukrzaliznytsia’s passenger cars and damaged another 200 pieces of rolling stock.
The national carrier forecasts a serious shortage of tickets on key routes and urges passengers to plan their trips in advance.
The situation with passenger seats is already becoming critical, even before the official peak of the summer vacation season.
According to the company, available technical resources do not allow it to fully meet the needs of everyone wishing to use rail transport.
The most critical situation is traditionally observed on domestic routes connecting the capital with the western regions of the country.
“Already today, the average ratio of demand to supply for train seats is 4 to 1, and during the season it will rise to 6 people per seat. On certain routes, the numbers are simply staggering—9,762 people are looking for seats daily on the Lviv-Kyiv route,” Ukrzaliznytsia emphasizes in its official statement.
The main cause of this crisis is the systematic shelling of critical and transportation infrastructure, which is leading to significant losses of rolling stock.
In addition to the property directly destroyed, railway workers are forced to constantly take equipment out of service for repair work.
A large percentage of the fleet also breaks down due to natural aging and structural wear and tear.
“We can add another 200 railcars and an entire Intercity+ train to this figure, which are awaiting repair due to shelling, drone attacks, and collisions. 1,050 railcars are awaiting inspection and removal from service due to their age and unserviceable condition,” the agency details the scale of the technical problems.
To address the shortage, railway officials recommend that passengers purchase tickets exactly 20 days before departure, when sales open.
If the desired seats are not available, passengers should use the company’s official mobile app, which features a special automatic booking function.
The carrier assures that this digital tool has already proven its high effectiveness in practice.
“If you couldn’t snag a ticket right away—turn on auto-purchase. The 150,000 passengers who have already purchased nearly a million tickets since the start of the year specifically through auto-purchase will confirm its effectiveness,” notes UZ.
In addition, passengers are advised to be more active in combining different modes of transport and not to be afraid to plan routes with transfers.
In particular, for domestic travel, modernized commuter trains equipped with air conditioning systems can serve as an alternative.
For international travel, the carrier recommends choosing less crowded southwestern routes, as the Polish route will remain congested.
Kharkiv was attacked by drones once again
Operators of the 427th Separate Brigade “Rarog” struck a Tor-M2 air defense system in the Luhansk region.
Meanwhile, fighters from the 414th “Madyar Birds” Brigade, together with the 20th K-2 Brigade, struck an enemy training center and temporary deployment point in the Luhansk region.
