Ukrainian Railways gets acting CEO, signs new MoU with Deutsche Bahn

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers appointed Željko Marček
as the acting CEO of Ukrainian Railways (RAILUA), the company reported on Feb.
5. Marček was appointed to the firm’s board of directors in 2016, being
responsible for human resources. The company’s supervisory board will soon
initiate the process of selecting the new company’s CEO, the report said.

In other news, Ukrainian Railways signed on Feb. 5 a
new memorandum with German railway operator Deutsche Bahn and its consulting
division DB Engineering & Consulting (DB E&C).
The memorandum foresees that at the first stage, within three months, the
parties will try to work out a roadmap for the Ukrainian company’s development
and improvement. Before that, Ukrainian Railways will announce a tender for
consulting services and DB E&C will participate in such a tender. If the
first stage is successful, at the second and third stages DB E&C
specialists will implement the agreed upon roadmap and manage the process.

Alexander Paraschiy: What is clear at the moment is that DB E&C is going to earn on
consulting services for Ukrainian Railways. Whether such cooperation will be successful
will depend primarily on the political will of the Ukrainian government, as
without regulatory changes any reform of the railway operator won’t be
possible. In the short term, it’s also important that the company gets an
efficient and reform-oriented CEO, and DB consultants should prove helpful in
the selection process.