The absence of efficient state measures to upgrade rolling stock owned by Ukrainian railways and the lack of an overriding strategy are leading to the loss of skilled staff and engineers at leading engineering companies, whose underlying strength is now only two to three months, Board Chairman of the Kriukov Car Building Works (KCBW, Kremenchuk, Poltava region) Anatoliy Shabala has said.

"I think that today decisions should be made very quickly. I say openly that the underlying strength is two or three months, and there are many engineering companies in Kremenchuk. Otherwise, we will lose employees and we will have to buy all these [rolling stock] abroad. Then we will have again Hyundai, etc," he said at the Ukrainian Forum of Infrastructure Development (UFID) in Kyiv last week.

Shabala said that the enterprise's design center currently has 500 specialists, including 320 designers. He also said that KCBW has designed a wide range of rolling stock, including for public use.

"There are many plans and designs for creating suburban AC/DC electric trains and AC/DC electric locomotives, freight and passenger cars," he said.

He expressed his alarm that designers who were trained for many years are now leaving Ukraine.

"High-class specialists aged from 33 to 38 are leaving Ukraine, and western companies take them with pleasure. They work in Russia, Turkey, Poland," he said.

Commenting on the absence of funds for state procurement of rolling stock, Shabala said that the first step to find funds could be to reuse dilapidated freight cars.

He said that a clear assessment of the needs of railways is required, with specific regards to rolling stock.

He also said that a criteria for defining innovation cars should be drawn up and leasing schemes could be used.