{"id":390143,"date":"2026-03-20T19:23:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=70142"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:23:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:23:27","slug":"spain-to-give-55-million-to-ukraine-for-variable-gauge-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=390143","title":{"rendered":"Spain to give 5,5 million to Ukraine for variable-gauge systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain and Ukraine are taking the next steps in their partnership to develop variable-gauge bogies. With a grant of 5,48 million euros, Madrid will help Kyiv in developing \u201ca new innovative bogie for freight wagons with an automatic change of gauge from 1520mm to 1435mm\u201d, Ukrainian Railways said.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>The money will come from the Spanish government via a grant agreement on non-repayable funding, while the expertise will be provided by Spain\u2019s infrastructure manager Adif and engineering company Tria. The project is the first one to receive money from the 200 million euros made available by Spain to help Ukraine at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

Cheaper than new infrastructure<\/h2>\n

The technology would allow for bogies to automatically increase or decrease their width when the rail gauge changes. Ukraine has the same rail gauge as Russia (1520mm). The idea of implementing a standard gauge (1435mm, like most of Europe) was already in the air, but the war intensified the need for solutions. Given the high costs of building new infrastructure, variable gauge bogies gained in popularity.<\/p>\n

Spain also has a different gauge compared to the rest of Europe (1600mm) and has been working on variable-gauge bogies since at least 2014. Thus, their expertise could prove significantly useful for Ukraine and its rail freight sector, which is in desperate need of new connections towards the West. Possible cooperation between the two countries was first explored in the summer of 2023<\/a> with the signing of a MoU in March 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain and Ukraine are taking the next steps in their partnership to develop variable-gauge bogies. With a grant of 5,48 million euros, Madrid will help\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19892,471,47,1024,48,341,19893],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-390143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bogies","category-news","category-rail-news","category-spain","category-technology","category-ukraine","category-variable-gauge","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t