[Editor's note: This story has been updated with information about U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur.]
By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
Since Feb. 24, when Russia launched its brutal, large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukranian Railways (UZ) has continued to operate by bringing humanitarian supplies into the country and evacuating refugees out. With the aviation industry shut down and automotive vehicles dangerous to use on roadways, UZ has been a lifeline for Ukrainians, many of whom refer to it as the country’s “second army.”
“That term — the ‘second army’ — that's really what the railroad is to the people of Ukraine because it connects everything and everybody,” says former U.S. Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris, who helped launch and now co-chairs the Global Ukraine Rail Task Force. “They've lost almost 300 employees [since the war started]. They run out and try to fix whatever's broken or bombed. They put their lives on the line.”
The task force formed in March, shortly after UZ executives urged the global rail sector to help keep the national rail operator up and running during the war.
Also serving on the task force as vice chairs are Nick Brooks, secretary general of the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants in Europe (ALLRAIL), an international organization of passenger rail companies; Ray Chambers, owner of RBC Transportation Solutions LLC and president of the Association for Innovative Passenger Rail Operations (AIPRO); Jon McGrath, president and CEO of McGrath Railroad Construction and former chair of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association; and Robert VanderClute, former senior vice president of the Association of American Railroads and owner of FirstRail International LLC.
One of the group’s first actions was to call for international sanctions against the Russian Railways and Belarusian Railways. In addition to promoting sanctions against Russia's rail system, the task force's initial goals include helping Ukrainians flee the conflict; transporting food and goods to the public and arms to Ukrainian fighters; moving oil and gas supplies by rail to replace Russian exports; and repairing and maintaining Ukraine's rail infrastructure.
Over the past 10 months, the task force has welcomed new members; coordinated connections between humanitarian and other nonprofit organizations offering assistance to UZ and its employees; and maintained connections with the world’s rail sector in offering additional support in maintaining the railroad’s operations now and in the future.
UZ CEO Alexander Kamyshin, who’s led the railroad since April, is now a task force member. Also, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), co-chair and co-founder of the Ukraine Caucus in Congress, has joined the task force as honorary chair.
Promoting a new Marshall Plan
In recent weeks, Molitoris echoed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other European Union leaders who’ve called for the creation of a new “Marshall Plan” to rebuild Ukraine after the war. The Marshall Plan was a U.S.-sponsored initiative that helped revive western Europe’s economies after World War II.
World Bank estimates as of June 1 put the reconstruction and recovery costs in Ukraine at about $349 billion, which is about 1.6 times the size of country’s pre-war economy in 2021. The damage across sectors was estimated at $97 billion. The most damage-affected sectors are housing (40% of total damage), transport (31%), and commerce and industry (10%), according to a World Bank report issued in October.
Kamyshin has endorsed the Marshall Plan idea and asked that the Ukraine’s national railroad — which transports freight and passengers — be part of the recovery plan, according to Molitoris.
“Anybody who pays any attention to what's going on knows the level of destruction in Ukraine,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking. It looks a lot like Europe at the end of World War II.”
Early on in the invasion, the Russians wanted to preserve Ukraine’s rail system so they could use it after what they believed would be a brief conflict. But as the Ukrainians have fought back, the Russians’ bombing and destruction of the country’s rail infrastructure has been considerable, says task force member Chambers.
“To my knowledge, [UZ employees] are keeping up and repairing stuff almost immediately,” he says. “They're getting the trains back to service — and there’s a couple of videos out there about this — the loyalty of their crews and people is just absolutely phenomenal.”
Planning for the future
The task force is currently tweaking its goals to adapt to the railroad’s needs as the war rages on, Chambers says. However, the primary mission remains to support whatever the railroad needs to successfully maintain operations during the war and then help plan for its post-war reconstruction. UZ has provided the task force a list of what it needs now and in the future.
“We have to think both near-term and long term,” says Molitoris. “That’s how the railroad thinks.”
Organizations that have reached out to help the railroad include Network Rail in Great Britain, Wabtec Corp., and the Canadian rail industry. In September, the Canadian government, UZ and members of the Railway Association of Canada — on behalf of CN and Canadian Pacific — set up a working group to support the reconstruction of Ukrainian rail infrastructure. And this summer, the U.K. government pledged $12.2 million to rebuild rail infrastructure so that UZ trains could export grain trapped by Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea.
Additional assistance will come from the billions of dollars in aid that nations worldwide have pledged to Ukraine. How much of that has gone, or will go, to the railroad is being sorted out, Chambers says.
So far, the U.S. Congress has approved three Ukraine aid packages for a combined $68 billion. On Nov. 15, the White House asked for another $37.7 billion, which would bring the total to $105.5 billion, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This latest aid request is designed to last until Sept. 30, 2023, but at the current rate of spending would last until May 2023, CSIS states on its website.
One action item on the task force agenda for 2023 is communication with Americans — especially members of Congress. Molitoris believes support for Ukraine should be bipartisan.
“We will be sending to each member of Congress a letter when they come into their offices in January,” she says. “We’ll be asking them to be very aware of how important support of Ukraine and its railroad is.”
