The government has announced an allocation of 13 billion UAH for Ukrzaliznytsia in 2025, followed by another 16 billion in 2026, as stated by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko during a press briefing.
“The 16 billion is the difference between ticket prices and their actual cost,” Svyrydenko noted.
She emphasized that this year has seen a significant imbalance: previously, the revenue from freight transport covered the losses from passenger services, where ticket prices are much higher than the actual costs.
“For instance, a ticket to Kherson costs about 200 UAH, but its real cost is four times higher,” the official explained.
The company faced the greatest losses in the transportation of metallurgy and coal, according to Oleksandr Pertzovsky, head of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia. He mentioned that these categories previously made up 60% of the company's freight volume.
“We lost more than half of our freight volumes due to the approaching front,” Pertzovsky said.
Currently, according to him, long-distance travel for Ukrzaliznytsia generates 7 billion UAH in revenue, while the company's expenses amount to 20 billion UAH, including salaries and electricity costs. The state currently compensates the 13 billion UAH difference.
This money comes from taxpayers, which is why, to fulfill its social obligations, Ukrzaliznytsia has proposed the support program “UZ-3000,” offering every Ukrainian 3000 free kilometers for domestic travel.
“This program is being implemented alongside the systematic compensation for the actual cost of passenger transport, which will improve the situation for the railway and maintain travel accessibility for all Ukrainians,” said Oleksandr Pertzovsky, head of the board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia.
On November 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had tasked the development of a transport support program, under which Ukrzaliznytsia proposed to provide Ukrainians the ability to travel 3000 kilometers for free by train within Ukraine.