Kava told RAIL.insider that in Europe carriers generally pay only the variable costs of using infrastructure, while most maintenance and development is financed by the state.
“The lion’s share of maintenance and development — the infrastructure that many Ukrainians like in Poland, Hungary, and Germany — is funded from the state budget," he said.
He cited Poland as an example. Poland allocates up to PLN6 billion ($1.7 billion) a year from the state budget for infrastructure maintenance. Additional funding for development, including major repairs; reconstruction; new lines; and electrification, reaches about PLN20 billion ($5.5 billion).
"Altogether, to reach the level of state support for rail infrastructure seen in other countries, we would need to allocate about UAH300 billion,” Kava said.
“That amount will certainly be unaffordable for us in the coming years because it is very difficult to balance the budget.”
He noted that national security and defense remain priorities and that current funding for rail is far below levels provided in European countries.
Kava added that talks with European partners are ongoing but so far they have not offered funding instruments on the scale used in Europe.