Ukraine may lose a third of its freight cars
And not because of accidents or Russian shelling, but simply because of reaching the “passport age”.
Due to the order of the Ministry of Development to write off wagons based on their age, normal wagons that could still serve for years will have to be cut into metal. In 2026–2031, almost 29,000 working cars may be written off. This is a third of the Ukrainian park.
And this is during the war and future reconstruction, when the country will need to massively transport metal, cement, crushed stone, fuel, equipment and cargo for defense.
The problem is that Ukraine still operates a model where the main thing is not the technical condition of the car, but its “passport age”. Although a different principle works in the USA and the EU: the train travels as long as it is technically possible and safe.
The system of rigid retirement by age exists only in Russia. It was introduced there to support wagon-building factories, which also make tanks part-time.
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