Research of the modern state of railway transportation of freight

Abstract

Railway transport in the overall transport potential plays a decisive role, ensuring logistics processes in the country. In the conditions of extraordinary events such as military actions, social upheavals, natural disasters, man-made disasters, railway transport provides the economic and social needs of the country, thanks to its reliability. The current state of railway freight transportation in Ukraine, the structure of transportation, and its adaptation to modern conditions have been studied. The advantages of railway transportation include: - the possibility of sending a large volume of cargo; - saving time when passing dimensional and weight control; - independence from weather conditions; - cost of transportation. With the beginning of the russian aggression, logistical connections were lost. all Ukrainian farmers faced the problem of grain transportation and export. The grain cargo was concentrated on the borders with European countries. The main technical reasons for the limited ability to transport export goods through the western crossings: - different width of the railway track - in Europe it is 1435 mm, while in Ukraine - 1520 mm.; - shortage of transshipment capacities at the border; - lack of rolling stock; - limited capacity of certain sections of foreign railways; - presence of weight restrictions; - insufficient number of carriages for repositioning. In August 2023, there were positive changes to overcome the decrease in cargo exports that occurred due to port blockades. Polish and Ukrainian railways agreed on joint work on the development of passenger and freight rail transport between the countries in order to increase the export-import potential. The formation of a long-term strategy regarding the possibility of expanding railway corridors to Baltic ports has begun. During 2022, the railway suffered losses; - the acquisition of their own parks by farmers led to a surplus of railway containers; - the increase in tariffs for freight transportation did not compensate for the losses of the railway; - changes in the tariffs for railway transportation led to an increase in transportation by road transport.