The first step to address the problem of transportation of agricultural products by rail is the admission of private traction to the Ukrainian market, said Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agricultural Council (UAC), Mikhail Sokolov during the meeting of the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations on September 6.

"The admission of private traction is the main solution that needs to be taken to overcome the "logistical collapse" in Ukraine. After all, the key issue is precisely the lack of locomotives, because there are cars, but their turnover has increased to 20 days from 3 days", - said Mikhail Sokolov.

Thus, according to him, the admission of private draft will also help to solve the problem of the lack of grain carriages, since companies with a private park are not able to operate their cars today due to the lack of sufficient locomotives. Having private craving for the company will be able to increase the turnover of grain carriages, as well as export of agrarian products.

The participants of the meeting stressed that PJSC "Ukrzaliznytsya" should stop the closure of railway stations, justifying their inefficiency. In the opinion of the participants of the meeting, the question of the efficiency of the work of stations - is a question of operational activities of "Ukrzaliznytsya". At the same time, the main reason for the inefficiency through which Ukrzaliznytsya proposes to close these stations is, first of all, the lack of locomotives and rolling stock.

Participants of the grain market also emphasized the need to ensure predictability of the state policy on raising tariffs for rail transportation.

Thus, during the meeting, the following proposals were made:

• To recommend to the Verkhovna Rada, as soon as possible, to consider draft law No. 7316 on rail transport of Ukraine;
• To recommend to the Cabinet of Ministers to take measures to improve the activities of Ukrzaliznytsya, to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the freight stations and to resume the work of closed stations, to ensure control over the tariff work of Ukrzaliznytsya, as well as to create a permanent working group on the activities of railway transport under the government;
• To recommend PJSC "Ukrzaliznytsya" to take measures to improve the capacity of the railway infrastructure, to ensure transparent distribution of rolling stock, to increase the number of locomotives and carriages of grains, to ensure timely repair of the locomotive park, to introduce compensation to shippers in the case of idle trains, etc.

The corresponding draft decision, which contains the proposals, is proposed to be turned into an appeal, which will then be sent to the president, the government and the National Security and Defense Council.

Recall that after analyzing grain freight stations regarding their efficiency, PJSC "Ukrzaliznytsya" decided to close 177 stations out of 528 existing ones in Donetsk, Lviv, Odesa, South-Western, Southern and Prydniprovska railways. So, 60 stations are completely closed, and 117 - partially for six months.

As a result, thousands of tons of grain were blocked, logistics costs for farmers increased threefold. This in turn negatively affects the volumes of Ukrainian grain exports and leads to losses both for representatives of the agrarian sector and, in general, for the Ukrainian economy.