RegioJet, People in Need, CD Cargo and RCA to launch humanitarian trains between Ukraine and Prague
Three major carriers will be involved in assisting Ukrainian refugees traveling to the Czech Republic: RegioJet, CD Cargo and Rail
Three major carriers will be involved in assisting Ukrainian refugees traveling to the Czech Republic: RegioJet, CD Cargo and Rail Cargo Group (a subsidiary of ÖBB). In cooperation with the non-profit organization People in Need, a humanitarian train connection will be launched from March 1, connecting Prague with Ukraine daily in both directions. RegioJet is responding to a direct request from Kiev and the management of Ukrainian Railways. It will provide evacuation of people and transport of humanitarian aid.
“The train will be designated for humanitarian transport of people free of charge. At the same time, in the direction of Ukraine, it will carry food, medicines, hygiene supplies, sleeping bags and other items as requested. The train will have both sleeper cars with a total capacity of up to 400 seats (with sufficient capacity for luggage transport), as well as pallet freight cars for the transport of humanitarian cargo of up to 600 pallets per day according to current possibilities. In total, we are counting on up to 20-car trains – we will provide Ukraine with a daily large capacity for transporting people and humanitarian aid,” said Radim Jancura, owner of RegioJet.
The cross-border connection in cooperation with Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) will provide train transport directly from Ukraine to Prague, without the need to travel on damaged roads and through clogged border crossings. Between Lviv and Przemyśl, Poland, passengers will travel on a Ukrainian Railways IC train with a direct guaranteed transfer to a RegioJet sleeper train in Przemyśl (this measure is necessary given the different railway infrastructure gauges). The cross-border train connection should be the fastest way to evacuate women and children from the war-affected territory. Border clearance should take place on the train during the journey between Lviv and Przemyśl. Freight wagons from CD Cargo and ÖBB subsidiary
“Until now, logistical and security problems have prevented us from transporting more humanitarian aid into the country; the needs are enormous. The joint project of using trains with reloading to Ukrainian Railways and distribution to various places in the attacked country is great, and if it gets off the ground, it will mean hundreds and hundreds of tons, and that is truly significant aid,” says Simon Panek, director of People in Need (Člověk v tísni).
RegioJet is working with People in Need, CD Cargo and Rail Cargo Group (a member of the ÖBB Group) on the humanitarian train connection for Ukraine. People in Need is handling the logistics of collecting humanitarian aid for transport by RegioJet trains to Ukraine; CD Cargo and Rail Cargo Group will provide the freight cars. Each day, several truckloads’ worth of pallets of the necessary humanitarian aid funded by the SOS Ukraine public collection of People in Need will be loaded onto the trains from Prague. The trains will run from/to Prague via Pardubice, Olomouc, Ostrava, Przemyśl, and Lviv to/from Kiev.