Former transport minister: New rail tariffs will backfire, cause road decay

Source: Center of Transport Strategies

The recent decision by Ukrzaliznytsia to increase freight tariffs by a staggering 37% will see freight transport companies shift their operations to roads, which can accelerate road decay plunging Ukraine into a logistical nightmare, said Orest Klympush, head of the Federation of Transport Employers of Ukraine and the country’s former transport minister.

“Ukraine is already grappling with massive issues in road maintenance ” Klympush warned. “Cargo owners, priced out of railway transport due to high tariffs, will inevitably turn to trucks. This creates a crushing burden on roads that simply weren’t designed to handle a flood of heavy vehicles.”

Amid the challenges of wartime, Klympush argued, such policy can be  a step in the wrong direction.

“The stakes are enormous,” he stressed. “Unscrupulous carriers, cashing in on soaring demand, are pushing vehicle weight limits well past European norms. In some instances, trucks have exceeded the legal maximum by a jaw-dropping 54%! These overloaded behemoths create cracks, potholes, and deformations that require urgent and costly [road] repairs.”

Klympush reminded that  the government earmarked 17.1 billion hryvnias to the State Agency for Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development for road maintenance works, but overloaded trucks can make these investments useless.

“We’re spending billions of hryvnias every year to patch up our roads,” Klympush lamented, “but these efforts are being undone by premature wear of road surfaces caused by heavy vehicles.”

He bitterly called out Ukrainian lawmakers claiming new freight tariffs will prove costlye for the economy strained by war: “If we don’t rethink Ukrzaliznytsia’s tariff policies, Ukraine will be stuck in an endless cycle of pouring money into road repairs, while neglecting the long-term sustainability of its transport infrastructure.”