THE European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to provide a €152m sovereign loan to finance the extension of the first metro line in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk.

Hosting the Euro 2012 football championship (jointly with Poland) has forced Ukraine to invest in its severely outdated infrastructure and rolling stock. However, says Jerom Rozendaal, the planned restructuring of Ukrainian Railways (UZ) is probably more important for the future of the railway.

RAILFREIGHT transport in Ukraine fell by 1.7% to 105 million tonnes in the first three months of 2012 as transit and domestic traffic fell by 17.4% and 5.8% respectively.

RUSSIAN wagon leasor Brunswick Rail has expanded its fleet to more than 20,000 after purchasing 2000 open wagons from Ukranian and Russian manufacturers on November 24.