The adoption of the State Program for the Renewal of the Freight Car Park of Ukraine with the maximum involvement of Ukrainian manufacturers will lead to the receipt of more than UAH 31 billion in the budgets of all levels. Ruslan Ilyichev, General Director of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, writes about this in a column.

Only 66 wagons were manufactured in Ukraine in February

Also, the program should increase GDP growth by 2.3% and create about 15 thousand jobs in the wagon building and more than 30 thousand jobs in related industries, reports Railway Supply magazine with reference to Railinsider.

The program, sponsored by the FRU, consists of incentives to renew the fleet of freight cars and a clear program for the decommissioning of used railway cars.

Wagons repair

In particular, it should provide for the formation and approval of appropriate schedules for the annual decommissioning of old railway cars in the amount of at least 12-15 thousand units with the simultaneous replacement of new rolling stock (at least 25% starting from 2021, annually, with a gradual increase in the share of innovative wagons in the total amount of wagons built). Also, the restoration program, according to the author, should take into account the interests of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, in the overwhelming majority of the cars of which will be decommissioned upon approval of the draft order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

Freight wagons repair

According to Ilyichev, the issues of providing UZ with cars cannot be realized only due to its financial capabilities. That is why it is necessary, in particular, to resolve the issue of exemption or reduction of land tax for Ukrzaliznytsia, subsidizing passenger transportation, planning funds in the state budget for the next and future years by analogy with passenger cars (the budget for 2021 provides UAH 4 billion, which will be used to purchase new passenger cars and upgrade the railway infrastructure).

Related:

Since the beginning of the year, the production of freight cars in Ukraine has fallen by 53%

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