Ukrainian Railways

І. Reference text

The highly developed transport system guarantees national growth and well-being, as the economic development of each country is closely connected with development of its transport network. Just from the beginning the transport network has defined scopes and rates of opening up new natural resources, developing agricultural lands, establishment of new industrial centres. One of the major parts in the transport system of each country is played by railways. The same can be said about Ukraine. Railways are the main means of transporting passengers and freight all over Ukraine and abroad.

The history of Ukrainian Railways started more than 150 years ago. The special geographical position of Ukraine at the crossing of international transport routes has resulted in its transit advantages. For many centuries before inventing the railways trade caravans were moving from the Far East to Western Europe, merchant ships were going up and down Ukrainian rivers, bringing goods from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and then to the Mediterranean. All these processes were accelerated by the Industrial Revolution. And the necessity to export agricultural produce necessitated the goods transportation to sea ports.

The first railway appeared in Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century. In 1861 the railway connection 82km long between Lviv and Przemysl was opened in Galicia (Halychyna, Western Ukraine), and in 1865 196km line was built between Odesa and Balta (station of Slobodka). This marked the beginning of construction of railways on the whole Ukrainian territory, and each year new and new kilometres were laid down.

The Ukrainian Railways or Ukrzaliznytsia (as its name sounds in Ukrainian) were established as a state railway transport company in 1991, together with the proclamation of Ukraine's independence. Today the whole its length is about 23,000km, among them one third is formed by double-track and multi-track lines. More than 8,300 km are electrified, 60% of the network is equipped with automatic

signalling system, two thirds of railway switch & crossings are fitted out with electric interlocking. The whole number of stations is 1,833 including 51 sorting yards, 430 depots. About 500 ths people is the staff of the railways.

Ukrainian Railways are divided into six railways, they are Southern-Western (Kyiv), Southern (Kharkiv), Donetsk, Prydniprovska (Dnipropetrovsk), Odesa, Lviv.

Up to 1991 in the former USSR about 60% of export-import cargo handling was performed at land and sea crossings of Ukraine. Ukrainian Railways have 8 joint stations at the country's western frontiers. They are equipped with joint lines (1,520 and 1,435 mm) and necessary load-unload facilities, warehouses/plants for changing axles. Discharge of cargoes from railway onto sea transport is performed at 9 main by-port stations at the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, each having handling capaciiy over 100 wagons per day.

Ukrainian Railways take the 5th place in the world for the amount of passengers' shipment. Every day about 600 passenger trains of intercity and international communication circulate over Ukrainian Railways. The most popular are "Ukraine", "Slavutich", "Lviv", "Chornomorets", "Verkhovyna", "Dnipro", “Donbas”, etc. Ukraine is connected by through trains with all the capitals of the CIS as well as with St/Petersburg, Vladivostok, Berlin, Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Prague, Bratislava, Belgrade. The largest railway junctions are Kyiv, Odesa, Simferopol, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk.

Today Ukrainian Railways have been included into the European Network, and three international corridors pass via Ukraine. So the development of Ukrainian Railways is closely connected with the development of European Railway Network. New high-speed routes were opened: Kharkiv - Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk - Kyiv providing additional comforts for passengers. Piggy-back combined services have been put into operation. And nowadays our railways are actively developing to form a profitable and reliable structure able to compete with other transport modes at the national and international, markets.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14