Estimation of Private Locomotives Usage Efficiency for Freight Transportation in Ukraine

Ukraine has undertaken the implementation of European Union Directives, which provide non-discriminatory admission to the railway infrastructure of independent carriers. A significant number of factors considerably affect working conditions of the carriers which are independent of Ukrzaliznytsia. One of the goals while performing transportation by independent carriers is the organization of private locomotives operation and their service by engine crews. The purpose of the article is to assess technical and economic indices of private locomotives use for goods transportation. The schemes of infrastructure objects arrangement for locomotives operation and engine crews work are presented. Performed calculations show the potential possibility of independent railway carriers to fulfil transportation to seaports with the use of its private locomotive infrastructure exclusively. The estimation of economically expedient volumes of cargo transportation by private locomotives in comparison with existing pricing of Ukrzaliznytsia is carried out. The nonlinear dependence of transportation volume depending on the distance is determined, at which the total cost of cargo transportation by Ukrzaliznytsia locomotives is equal to the cost of cargo transportation by private locomotives. The results of the study allow concerned companies to evaluate the investment efficiency into the development of locomotive fleet for rail transportation