As part of Ukraine’s effort to integrate its transport network with that of the EU, the country is planning to build various standard gauge rail connections in the country’s west. One of those is a line between Chop and Uzhhorod, on the border with Hungary and Slovakia. If everything goes according to plan, it should be opening relatively soon.
The EU’s transport commissioner Apostol Tzitzikostas paid a visit to Kyiv on 24 February. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Kuleba, told him that the line to Uzhhorod would be finished in the second half of the year. The EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) provided half of the funds for the line, which cost a total of 32,7 million euros.
The 22-kilometre Chop – Uzhhorod line is the first major rail project to connect Ukraine to Europe’s standard gauge network. The connection to Chop provides some flexibility in terms of rail logistics with Europe. The town is an important rail node on the Slovak and Hungarian borders, from where trains can travel in various directions. However, it is not the first or only planned standard gauge line in Ukraine, or even in Uzhhorod.
Other projects
Another project involving the city concerns the design for the construction of an electrified 1435-millimetre rail line. It would cross between Uzhhorod and Maťovské Vojkovce in Slovakia. Moreover, Ukraine plans to connect the city of Lviv to Poland via a standard gauge railway, and an existing line to Kovel will get overhead lines. Those projects can also count on extensive CEF support, running into the tens of millions.
“We are grateful to the European Commission for the extraordinary support of Ukraine, in particular in the field of transport and recovery”, prime minister Kuleba commenced. “It is important that both Ukraine and the European Union benefit from joint projects and initiatives.”