Once again, the crucial relevance of the railways as one of the strategic means of transport of a nation becomes striking, connecting its territories and structuring it internally. Our Ukrainian colleagues are living in a very difficult situation, immersed in a conflict in which there is still no end in sight.
According to the data collected in the article published in the magazine Venerdì on 18 November 2022, we have lost 271 railway colleagues to date due to this war and despite this sad reality, their commitment is so strong that trains continue to run in Ukraine with a punctuality (94%) that is astonishing compared to the European average (78.7%), carrying out an essential task for that country, moving 200 international delegations and bringing to safety four million citizens, 2000 wounded soldiers and 11,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid delivered to date. Not a single intercity has been cancelled since the start of the conflict on Europe’s third-largest railway, the seventh-largest in the world in terms of goods transported and the sixth in terms of passengers.
Our organisation (ALE) is following with apprehension the situation in which our fellow train drivers are plunged on a daily basis and we want to convey our support to them in the hope that we will soon be able to carry out new humanitarian aid initiatives with the active collaboration of our member unions.
We renew our feeling of closeness to our Ukrainian train drivers’ colleagues, which makes us feel like an essential collective for our countries, in the hope that this conflict will end as soon as possible.