Railways of Moldova SE (CFM) and Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) have agreed on strategic cooperation for 3 years.
Representatives of the Moldovan and Ukrainian railroad administrations agreed on strategic cooperation for the next 3 years at a meeting of delegations in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 10. The director of CFM, Oleg Tofilat, said the first important steps were taken in 2022 to improve railway cooperation between Moldova and Ukraine. Last August, the Basarabeasca-Berezino railroad section was urgently restored - the section, which had not functioned for a quarter of a century, was repaired in less than 2 months. "In the course of the work, specialists from Ukrainian Railways helped us to reconstruct the railroad branch that crossed the territory of Moldova. Therefore, in the future we plan to involve Ukrainian specialists in the process of modernizing the railway infrastructure. This will allow increasing the safety and speed of the trains," Oleg Tofilat said. In turn, the director of Ukrzaliznytsia Alexander Kamyshin said that since the beginning of the war, Moldova has become an important strategic partner for Ukraine. "Our neighbors have helped us export grain and import the necessary diesel fuel. We hope that cooperation relations between the railroad administrations will continue and deepen in the future," Alexander Kamyshin said. According to him, since February 24, 2022, 397 thousand tons of Ukrainian grain has been exported and 363.3 thousand tons of oil products have been imported through Moldova by rail. Also, after a break of 24 years, in early November 2022 the movement of passenger trains on the Kyiv-Chisinau route was resumed. "Currently, millions of our fellow citizens are forced to live in other countries. Thanks to this train, Ukrainians can access Chisinau airport to migrate to other countries with temporary residence, and also have the opportunity to return home. Since December, the Chisinau-Kyiv train has been running every day, and more than 10,000 passengers have already used this transport service," Alexander Kamyshin said. At the end of the meeting, the sides agreed to consolidate the railway cooperation between the two states by increasing the volumes of transported cargo, and engaging Ukrainian specialists in restoring and modernizing the Moldovan railway infrastructure. // 13.02.2023 – InfoMarket
