GETTING THE GOODS OUT.

Trains correspondent Keith Fender reports on Ukrainian railroaders keeping the freight moving despite Russian attempts to block the railroads.  "As the Russian military adjusts its strategy and goals following the failure of its original invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24, it has increased strategic attacks on the network of national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) in the west of the country, largely through missile strikes."

Ukraine's transportation network was set up to move the agricultural output to Black Sea ports, and the rail lines that have a common gauge on both sides of the border serve Stalin era steel plants.  That makes getting the agricultural output that will be available for sale to market harder. Russian targeting appears also to include the electric power supply.

April and early May have seen the Russian military seek to disrupt Ukrainian transport and communications within areas still controlled by the Ukrainian government, as far west as its borders with European Union/NATO countries. This has led to multiple attacks on the rail network, which has been crucial to the movement of civilian refugees, humanitarian aid, and military supplies. It has also had a damaging impact on Ukraine’s ability to maintain its export of food.

In advance of the main Russian attack in the Donbas, which began in mid-April, the region’s rail network was subject to missile and artillery attacks. The network in the Donbas is electrified at 3kV D.C., unlike most of the rest of the UZ system, which uses 25kV A.C., although many secondary lines are not electrified at all.

There are diesel locomotives on hand to assist with disruptions on the electrified lines.

The bigger challenge, though, is to keep those freight lines fluid.

UZ is now trying to move some freight to European countries, from where it can be exported using ports on the Baltic Sea in Poland or Germany. But this has been slowed by a lack of freight cars, as well as red tape and the need to deal with a change of track gauge at the border with Poland or other countries.

Ukraine, like all countries of the former Soviet Union, uses 5-foot broad gauge track, while neighboring European Union countries use standard gauge. As there are no freight cars with automatic gauge-change equipment, every car heading from Ukraine to its EU neighbors either has be lifted on jacks so standard-gauge trucks can be swapped for the broad-gauge ones. The even more time-consuming option is to transload cargo from cars of one gauge of those of the other. This is fairly quick for freight in containers, but for bulk loads like grain, iron ore, or coal, containers are not normally used. The same problem in reverse applies to European cargo entering Ukraine.

In early April nearly 25,000 cars carrying various export goods including vegetable oil, iron ore, metals, chemicals, and coal were waiting to cross Ukraine’s Western border into Poland; of these 1,100 carried grain.

The article notes, without assessing responsibility, that some rail targets within Russia have been damaged.