TRANSPORT EVOLUTION AND MODERN CHALLENGES OF UKRAINIAN RAILWAY

Abstract

The article deals with the patterns of the transport system development and, inparticular, rail freight transport under the influence of the general laws of dialectics. There has beenconducted a comparative analysis of the performance of rail and road transport, in particular freighttraffic, freight turnover and the average distance of transportation. The volumes of freighttransportation by Ukrainian railways and the availability of rolling stock have been analyzed. Themain identified quality indicators of the economic-mathematical model and regularities betweenquantitative changes in the system of social division of labour led to quantitative changes in thetransport sector, which serves the manufacturing sector. It has been determined that the current stateof the railway and further maintenance of its competitiveness even taking into account the existingvolume of transport services requires immediate solution of technical and technological as well asorganizational issues regarding modernization of rolling stock, improvement of railwayinfrastructure and management system. The analysis of foreign and domestic experience of transportactivity testified to the narrowing of railway transportation segment, with the railways dealing mostlywith the transportation of bulk cargo. There has been conducted a correlation-regression analysis ofthe impact of the main locomotives and freight cars on the volume of freight traffic. It has been definedthat the level of influence of the main locomotives fleet on the provision of uninterruptedtransportation is almost twice as high as the influence of the operational fleet of cars. It has beenfound out that the most important issue is to further ensure the functionality of available means oftransport. It has been concluded that the priority task today is the introduction of innovations that can extend the operational capacity of the available locomotive fleet through the introduction ofmodern technologies.