Ukraine seeks to improve railway connections with Moldova and Romania

Ukraine is seeking to improve railroad connections with Moldova and Romania. On November 8-9, a trilateral meeting was held between the railways of Ukraine, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova to discuss ways to improve transportation in the direction of Reni-Giurgiulesti – Galati and vice versa, Rail.Insider reports.

During the meeting, the parties identified the following measures to improve border capacity:

• non-stop driving through Reni;
• coordination of transported volumes in five days;
• transfer of complete collective trains, 50-60 railcars (from Moldova to Romania);
• three-way exchange of information on the movement of railcars and the daily processing capacity of receiving terminals in Galatasaray;
• integration of the recipient terminals in Galati into the Mesplan automated system.

«The implementation of such actions will bring a number of benefits, including a threefold increase in the capacity of the Giurgiulesti Galati border crossing point, a 2-3 day reduction in the time of railroad car transportation between the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Romania, and a reduction in transportation costs,» the meeting said.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in October Ukrainian Railways transported 13.58 million tons of cargo, which is 12.8% more month-on-month and 12.6% y/y. In January-October, Ukrainian Railways reduced cargo transportation by 7.1% y/y – to 12.1 million tons. 43.3 million tons of cargo was transported in export traffic in 10 months, which is 15.5% less than y/y year, and in October – 4.9 million tons (+36.2% m/m).