Ukrainian Railways and Polish PKP agree to develop railway communication

JSC Ukrainian Railways (UZ) and Polish State Railways (PKP) have agreed to develop railroad communication between the countries. This is stated in the press release of UZ.

The agreement was reached during negotiations in Ukraine with a Polish delegation consisting of Alan Beroud, President of the Board of Polskie Koleje Państwowe S.A. and PKP Group, Piotr Wyborski, President of the Board of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A., representatives of PKP Intercity, PKP CARGO and PKP LHS.

“Over the past few years, we have made significant progress in cooperation between the railways of Ukraine and Poland. New passenger routes have been launched, the situation with freight transportation has been regulated, and the operation of border crossings has been improved. However, it is now important to focus on strategic projects and solving the most critical issues. Together with our Polish colleagues, we discussed in detail all aspects of joint work and visually studied problematic issues in the operation of border crossing points and border stations. We expect concrete decisions by the end of the year,” said Yevhen Lyashchenko, Chairman of the Board of JSC Ukrainian Railways .

Alan Beroud, in turn, pointed out that the signing of a joint declaration will strengthen cooperation with the Ukrainian railway, and will help build a strategic partnership between PKP and UZ, both organizational and business.

“This is a visit of historical significance, as it is the first visit of the heads of Polish railway companies to Ukraine since the beginning of the war. The implementation of a number of infrastructure investments to improve the quality of Polish-Ukrainian rail border crossings brings tangible benefits and emphasizes the importance of a unified attitude to the threats resulting from the geopolitical situation. We will continue our activities aimed at deepening cooperation between us and UZ,” said Piotr Wyborski, President of the Board of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A.

During the meeting, the parties worked out specific initiatives that will benefit both Ukrainian and Polish passengers. They discussed improving the quality of rolling stock and expanding the supply of seats on the Lviv – Warsaw route via Rava-Ruska, as well as the possibility of providing convenient connections, in particular with trains to Berlin, Vienna and Prague. Ukrainian Railways also offered its Polish colleagues to return to the issue of launching an additional train on the Kyiv-Warsaw route.

The railways of the two countries agreed to coordinate the preparation of railway infrastructure projects on the territory of their countries and border crossings as part of the development of the European transport corridors TEN-T, which were extended in July 2024 to the territory of Ukraine and Moldova.

The possibility of preparing railway infrastructure development projects for joint applications in the next calls for proposals of the European CEF program will also be considered.

As GMK Center reported earlier, UZ in January-June 2024 increased the transmission of iron ore through the Ukrainian-Polish railway border crossings on the 61.7% compared to the same period 2023 year – up to 2,599 million tons. Transportation of ferrous metals for this period amounted to 803 thousand tons, which is 45.5% less y/y. In general, during the first half of the year, UZ transferred 11.06 million tons of cargo to Poland, which is more by 36% y/y.