Ukrzaliznytsia

Ukrainian Railways ( uk, Укрзалізниця, Ukrzaliznytsia, abbreviated as UZ) is a state-owned joint-stock company of rail transport in Ukraine, a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transportation in the country. It possesses a combined total track length of over 23,000 km, making it the 13th largest in the world. Ukrainian Railways is also the world's 6th largest rail passenger transporter and world's 7th largest freight transporter.

In 2015, Ukrainian Railways transformed through a merger of a state agency and a state-owned enterprise into a public joint stock company owned by state. Ukraine's State Administration of Railroad Transportation is subordinated to the Ministry of Infrastructure, administering the railways through the six territorial railway companies that immediately control and provide of all aspects of the railroad transportation and maintenance under the common Ukrzaliznytsia brand. The general director of the administration is appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The gauge is . The administration employs more than 403,000 people throughout the country.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Railways continued operating to evacuate and rescue millions of people from cities towards Europe. The rail links between Ukraine and Russia have been blown up by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to prevent their use by Russians, but the railways have continued operating within Ukraine and between Ukraine and Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. One long-abandoned cross-border rail link with Poland was quickly reconstructed, and others which had been used only for freight have been quickly opened for passenger use. The rail service has evacuated over two million people from Ukraine on special evacuation trains. After some of the Black Sea ports became unavailable for grain export, rail became an export route to Europe. Several rail sections in the North and South became unusable.

Company structure and subsidiaries

Financial situation

In 2008 the Ukrainian State Railways transported around 498.5 million tonnes of domestic freight and 69.8 million tonnes of international freight through Ukrainian territory. Freight transport figures were particularly high on transport Routes 3, 5 and 9, which saw a combined total of 105 million tonnes carried in 2008. Further, Ukrzaliznytsia served around 518.8 million passengers over the course of the year. The state railways ran with an annual consolidated budget of a little more than ₴40 billion (US$5 billion) in 2008.

By the end of 2005 the railways had produced a profit equivalent to ₴1.76 billion (US$220 million) from all their operations including freight, passenger service, associated services and the operation of subsidiaries. The total capital invested in fixed assets of the State Railways is thought to be equivalent to around ₴22 billion (US$4.4 billion). However, depreciation of these fixed assets is estimated to be around 57%, or in terms of rolling stock, closer to 66.7%.

In 2019, Ukrainian Railway confirms intention to issue new Eurobond. Ukrainian Railway (RAILUA) has the potential to increase its debt by US$1 billion, indicating a possible Eurobond issue. Recall, Ukrainian Railway's existing US$500 million Eurobond will be amortized by US$150M both in March and September 2019 and then by US$50 million semi-annually between March 2020 and September 2021. He also confirmed that Ukrainian Railway is now considering a Eurobond issue, on which he can further comment as soon as the government publishes a respective resolution (on its parameters). Kravtsov also highlighted that it's important for investors to have a clear understanding on how the borrowing will be serviced. Taking this into account, Ukrainian Railways has proposed a mechanism of automatic adjustment of freight railway rates based on Ukraine's producer price index.

Ukrainian State Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) is the fourth company of the most profitable companies in Ukraine with a revenue of UAH ₴74 billion.

Administrative structure

The railways are split into six territorial railway companies: Donetsk, Lviv, Odesa, Southern, South-Western and Near-Dnipro. The subdivision is purely administrative as it doesn't correspond to the particular railway lines or branches. The names of regional railways are purely historic, inherited from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires (for instance the 'South-Western Railway' actually operates the north-central part of Ukraine's rail network, while the 'Southern Railway' actually operates in the east of the country).There is no Kharkiv "South Station" in the official documents of Ukrzaliznytsia
(12 December 2022)

The six separate territorial railways each have their own directorates, located in the following cities:

# Donetsk Railway – Lyman (temporarily as Donetsk occupied by Russian military)
# Lviv Railway – Lviv
# Odessa Railway – Odessa
# Southern Railway – Kharkiv