“The US Chamber of Commerce has called on the Government to provide public funding for Ukrzaliznytsia passenger transportation / Photo Ukrzaliznytsynny community, united by the American Chamber of Commerce in …”, – WRITE: www.unian.ua
The US Chamber of Commerce called the Government to provide public funding for passenger transportation of Ukrzaliznytsia / Photo UkrzaliznytsiaThe business community, united by the US Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (ACC), called on the Ukrainian government to implement state funding for railway passenger transportation and to abolish the cross-sucking mechanism through income from the cargo segment in 2026.
The ACC emphasizes that the problem of loss of passenger transportation remains relevant for a long time. And despite the fact that UZ is trying to develop and optimize the passenger segment, in 2025 the financial losses of the company from this type of transportation are expected at the level of more than UAH 22 billion.
“The translation of financial burden and covering of losses of passenger transportation at the expense of income from the cargo segment is economically unjustified, contradicts European approaches and restrains the further development of the railway industry,” ACC stressed.
The Chamber Member Companies called on the Government to develop a mechanism of annual subsidy to compensate for the losses of UZ in 2026 from passenger transportation at the expense of the state budget in the amount of UAH 21 billion. This, according to ACC, will be an important step for forming an effective and balanced tariff policy in the railway industry.
Earlier, the European Business Association also called on the government to put compensation for Ukrzaliznytsia for unprofitable passenger transportation in the State Budget-Budgets for unprofitable passenger transportation in order to avoid the next translation of these losses to the consignment. The EBA stressed that the cross-subsisation model contradicts European practice and reduces the competitiveness of the cargo owners. They also advised to cancel the land tax for UZ, because it does not exist in any developed country.
We will remind, Ukrzaliznytsia has made the initiative to raise tariffs for freight rail transportation by 37%to cover increasing losses from passenger transportation. At the same time, according to economists estimates, such an increase can lead to the fall of the cargo base by 15%, which will give UZ only about 12 billion UAH of additional income. At the same time, losses for the economy will amount to UAH 96 billion in GDP and UAH 36 billion of tax revenues.