According to the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Olexander Kubrakov, the main task for developing the country's transport network for the coming years is the development of railway communication towards the ports, among which Odessa, Yuzhny and Chornomorsk play the most crucial role.

The development of railway infrastructure in communication with sea ports is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Infrastructure. This was stated by the Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, the press service of the MIU informs.

Ukraine cannot ignore the demand and potential of multimodal transport, in particular with Asian countries. Therefore, the renewal and development of infrastructure for the "sea-railroad" will be one of the main tasks in the coming years.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine

Note that the main role in the sea trade of Ukraine, including in terms of export and transit, is played by the three ports: Odessa, Yuzhny and Chornomorsk. At present, a second track is being built on the railway towards the port of Yuzhny. And the capacity of the railway line to the port of Odessa is limited, since it is single-track on the final section; the second track was dismantled there in the late 1990s. The port of Izmail in the south of the Odessa region on the Danube also needs updating and electrification of the railway infrastructure, and another Danube port in the Odessa region, Reni, is "cut off" by the state borders from the railway network of Ukraine.

Also, work has already begun on the electrification of the railway towards the port of Nikolaev. It is necessary to expand the capacity of the railway in the section from Zaporizhzhia to Volnovakha, together with its electrification - to facilitate access to the port of Mariupol. There is no electrification on the lines to the ports of Kherson and Berdyansk.

The minister noted that Ukraine has great export potential. At the same time, it cannot make full use of the factor of its geographic location since, in fact, its railway and port infrastructure is still outdated.

We need to integrate into the global system of multimodal transportation, which is expanding rapidly and defines modern logistics. For example, in the EU, the share of container traffic is about 45%. In Ukraine, we are talking only about 2.5%.

Oleksandr Kubrakov