Ukraine has started building yet another track to the border with the EU. The planned European-gauge track will run from Uzhhorod to Chop on the border with Hungary and Slovakia. Ukraine started building a track from Lviv to Poland earlier this year.
In the presence of the Prime Minister and the head of Ukrainian Railways, Ukraine started building the track on 11 April. The planned 22-kilometre track is part of a plan to integrate Ukrainian railway infrastructure with the EU and will allow the country to send trains directly into the European bloc.
“Today we are opening the construction process of an important project – the creation of the first European-gauge track from Chop to Uzhhorod. This project will also provide us with new logistical opportunities for freight transportation, and will relieve traffic checkpoints. Uzhhorod is becoming the first regional centre to be connected to Europe by a European-gauge railway”, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
European integration
Ukrainian Railways aims to finish the track within fourteen months. It will cost 31 million euros. The EU will cover half of the total costs of the project, after a bid by Ukrainian Railways won a selection competition.
Earlier, the EU and European Investment Bank developed a plan for rail integration between the EU and Moldova and Ukraine. The plan ultimately envisions a complete European gauge railway network in both countries.
As part of the efforts to improve rail connectivity between Ukraine and the EU, Ukraine started building a European-gauge track between Lviv and Poland earlier this year. According to the head of Ukrainian Railways, the company may extend the Uzhhorod track to Lviv at a later stage. This would allow Lviv to be connected with both the TEN-T Mediterranean corridor and the Rhine-Danube corridor.
Additionally, Ukraine and Poland have been looking to extend a broad gauge line further into Poland to streamline incoming rail traffic from Ukraine, and Ukraine has been building an intermodal terminal on the border with Romania to ease agricultural exports.
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