Moldovan railway scraps rails

The head of the Moldovan Railway, Sergei Tomsha, has resigned. Roman Kozhukhar, director of the Public Property Agency (APS), told reporters that Tomsha was being persuaded to change his mind or at least wait until the government finds a new candidate for the unpopular position. The fact is that ZHDM has not paid employees salaries for six months, increasing debts. The Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Vladimir Bolya, advised the management of the road to “scrap something and send the proceeds to pay salaries.”

Sergey Tomsha had previously submitted his resignation, but withdrew it. Since February 2024, he has been acting as General director of the Moldovan Railway after the resignation of the former head of the company, Oleg Tofilat. 

Tomsha is being persuaded to stay at the Public Property Agency, at least until the arrival of the new head of the railway, the head of the APS, Roman Kozhukhar, told reporters. But, as experience shows, the leaders of the railway do not stay in this position for a long time.

According to the leaders of the railway workers’ union, the company faced a difficult economic situation: salary arrears exceeded 191 million Moldovan lei (approximately 900 million Russian rubles) for 4,865 workers and employees. The railwaymen have organized several protest actions, the next one is scheduled for February 28.

Vladimir Bolya, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, said on television that the management of the railway “knows how to find funds to pay off salary arrears.” For example, “you can scrap something.”

“They (the management of ZHDM. – NG) are trying to sell what is not in use, for example, there are 85 locomotives that are completely destroyed, and wagons that are completely broken. The existing scrap metal base is very good. They have a commission that deals with this. The Ministry is not involved in this. They set the selling prices. I told them that the auction should be international, if there are buyers from Turkey or Romania, they will be able to get more money,” the minister said.

Vladimir Bolya noted that with the next budget adjustment in parliament, “there is an intention to introduce a mechanism for subsidizing railway infrastructure in order to financially support” the road.

In addition, the minister proposed to sell the Railway Workers’ Palace of Culture in Chisinau and other assets. The Railway Workers’ hospital, considered one of the best in the Moldovan capital, has already been handed over to the Ministry of Health. “Wasn’t all this railway drama started precisely for the sake of appropriating square meters in the center of Chisinau?” Moldovan Vedomosti asks the question.

The company has been in debt for 10 years. At the same time, the leadership complains about “attacks and disinformation,” “political interference,” which “tarnishes the image, compromises and undermines the fundamental values of the railway.” In February 2020, at a meeting of the parliamentary commission, it was announced that the state-owned enterprise Railway of Moldova was completely stopping the movement of local and suburban trains. The representative of the railway stated that passenger transportation within the country results in a monthly loss of 9-12 million lei (about 60 million rubles) for the company.

Since March 2020, international passenger trains have been suspended due to the pandemic, including the lucrative Chisinau–Moscow, Chisinau –St. Petersburg, Chisinau–Odessa and several others routes. They were never restored. Communication with Russia was closed for political reasons after President Maia Sandu came to power in December 2020. Trains do not run to Odessa due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Railway workers told NG that currently it is possible to travel by train from Chisinau to Kiev, Bucharest, Iasi (a city in Romania) and Unghen, a city on the Moldovan-Romanian border. Previously, railroad workers say, freight transportation brought profits. But now freight trains do not go to the east because of the fighting in Ukraine, and to the European Union for technical reasons: in the EU, narrow-gauge railways, in Moldova, both the gauge and the wagons are still Soviet. The authorities have been promising to remake them to European standards for many years, but nothing has been done. “It seems that the railway is not needed in Moldova, and it is being purposefully bankrupted in order to sell it later for baths (Moldovan pennies),” the source suggested.  He remains incognito, as the Russian press is forbidden to comment.

According to the railway employee, until recently, Ukrainian grain transit was profitable. “But then Ukrainians realized that there is a cheaper way – by sea. And they extended their railway line to the Moldovan port of Giurgiulesti on the Danube, and from there the goods are shipped by sea to the Romanian port of Constanta. The Ukrainian port of Reni is located next to Giurgiulesti, but it is not operational due to the conflict in Ukraine,” the Moldovan railway worker explained to NG.

Meanwhile, it became known that the Republic of Moldova is receiving financial support in the amount of 1.9 billion euros from the European Union for economic development, integration into the single European market and the implementation of key reforms. The implementation of the economic growth plan was discussed in Chisinau on Wednesday by Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Doina German and Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission David McAllister. Moldavian railways are not mentioned in the plan.

At the same time, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, last year the volume of goods transported by air increased by 19.5%, by road by 12.4% and by river transport by 0.2%. Rail transit showed a drop in both cargo volume (-38%) and distance traveled (-38.6%).

However, from March 1, the head of Moldova, Maya Sandu, will not be able to board the Chisinau–Kiev train, even if she is invited by the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, according to the Chisinau media. Because Oknitsky railway workers massively apply for dismissal due to unpaid salaries. If the Oknitsa station is paralyzed, “no train will travel to Kiev from Moldova.”