Q: Your company LHS manages a 400-kilometre stretch of broad-gauge railway from the Izov-Hrubieszów checkpoint on the Polish-Ukrainian border to Sławków Południowy LHS in Poland. How much is the line used, what does it freight and what is its technical condition?
A: LHS Sp. z o.o. (LHS Ltd) is carrier and administrator on an almost 400-kilometre stretch of broad-gauge (1520mm) railway from the Izov-Hrubieszów checkpoint on the Polish-Ukrainian border to the LHS terminal in Sławków in Silesia, 30 kilometres from Katowice. LHS provides a connection from Silesia to Ukraine, and, via Ukraine’s broad-gauge rail system, to other CIS countries and the Trans-Siberian Railway, as well as the New Silk Route through Kazakhstan to China. We offer a broad range of freigh services. We mainly carry import, export and transit goods, the dominant commodity is iron ore, but this began to change in 2005. In 2005 other goods made up 30.2% of our total freight, in 2007 the figure was 34.7%, rising further to 36% after the first six months of this year. As in previous years, in 2008 our main freight besides iron ore consisted of raw and processed minerals, petroleum products, coal, metalware, wood, coconuts, construction materials, glassware and chemicals. Very important for the company are investments in infrastructure and rolling stock, which will improve our services, raise freighting speed and increase our line’s capacity. We also want to create more options for combining trains, for which purpose we are rebuilding junctions in Niekrasów and Puszcza.
Q: You attended an international conference of the Organisation for Cooperation of Railways (OSJD) in Odessa devoted to competition in freighting, and the TransRussia 2008 freighting and logistics fair. Will your participation in these events have any bearing on the company and its policy?
A: The meetings we had on these occasions with railway officials from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as well as representatives of foreign freigh, reloading and container transport operators have borne fruit in the form of joint commercial projects. Talks at the TransRussia fair have resulted in the launching of a rail freigh project from Odessa to Sławków and Hamburg. We also work together with eastern-European forwarders. We are intent on keeping up our good image in the branch and therefore consider it very important to attend conferences and fairs devoted to freighting..
3/ You have received PLN 8.3 million in regional development funds under the Operational Programme Transport 2004-2006 to support the modernization of your Sławków LHS terminal in Sławków. What will this give?

A: This will be our main investment project this year. We hope it will raise our reloading and freighting capacity and allow us to carry more goods by broad-gauge rail. The whole undertaking will cost over PLN 70 million, we will cover a part of the costs from our own funds.

Q: Will your line be used by the EURO 2012 organisers?

A: We have offered to carry passengers during the Euro 2012 event. Right now we don’t have a passenger transport licence but we are ready to file for one if our offer is accepted. As yet neither the Polish nor Ukrainian EURO organisers have asked us to help. Passenger transport is one of several ways in which LHS could help the event. We can also freight construction materials, infrastructure and other goods from Ukraine. We’re open to offers regarding Euro 2012.