From October 16 to October 18, 2018, the 2nd International Exhibition-Conference "Rail Expo-2018" took place in Kyiv, for the second year in a row having gathered representatives of the government authorities, participants and market experts.

In the key session of the conference, devoted to the traction rolling stock, Dmitry Demidovich, director for development of Lemtrans, spoke. He gave an assessment of the situation on the market of rail freight, and also talked about the prospects of liberalization of the traction market.

Other participants of the discussion were the director of the locomotive department of PJSC "Ukrzaliznytsa" Sergey Pavlov, director of the team supporting the reforms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Klitina, the head of the external logistics department of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih Andrey Moroz, as well as the representatives of the EU Railways Twinning Project and the Poltava GOK.

This year, the main topics of the conference were the need for liberalization of the traction market, as well as the renewal and preservation of the car fleet.

Most industry experts and market participants agree that now, the key factor destabilizing the situation in the industry is the shortage of traction rolling stock.

"In this situation, everything is completely lost. The operators of the cars lose because the traffic has fallen. The shippers lose because they cannot ship the entire cargo of commodities that they have on their plans, - says Dmitry Demidovich. - They are forced to reduce production or not to receive proceeds. "Ukrzaliznytsia" loses because the volume of possible transportation is reduced. And in general, accordingly, the economy of Ukraine loses. "The fact that "Ukrzaliznytsia" does not cover the need for thrust, also complain of industrial enterprises. Representatives of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and Poltava GOK speak about growing stockpiles in warehouses. The accumulation of products testifies to the need for transportation of larger quantity of cargoes both inside the country and for export, says the Head of the External Logistics Department of the Krivyi Rih metro plant Andriy Moroz.

"Our enterprise is forced to import of limestone through ports, although the main sources of this raw material are the enterprises of Western Ukraine and the Donetsk Region. But it is not possible to significantly increase the export of limestone within the country, because of this part of the needs must be covered by imports. Why did we buy 500 wagons this year? Not to make more money. In fact, this is a compulsory measure in response to the risks associated with the non-production of raw materials and finished products. In the same context, it is also necessary to consider the persistent requests of enterprises for the introduction of private traction", - A. Moroz explained. The bill "On Railway Transport of Ukraine" (No. 7316), developed by the Ministry of Infrastructure, supported by the international consultants, could solve the problem.

Another topic raised in the discussions by the conference participants concerns the safety of the fleet. Thus, the Head of the Ukrzaliznytsia carriage department Oleg Motin noted that the main problem of exploitation is now the completion of carriages, and without the support of law enforcement agencies this problem is hard to be overcome by PJSC, Ukrzaliznytsya.

The participants of the meeting noted the importance of the further process of reforming the industry and creating competitive market with clear rules of the game. However, in connection with the latest developments observed, there seems to be no will to reform the industry