At the Vadul-Siret railway station in Ukraine, on the country’s border with Romania, preparations are underway to seamlessly integrate Ukraine’s railway network into the EU's.
"We are developing the 1435 gauge in Ukraine, which is the standard for the European Union." says Yurii Niemchykov, Director of Corporate Finance at Ukrainian Railways. "The project is funded by the European Commission through the Connecting Europe Facility."
Connecting the EU with Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, is strategically important: "It is the main crossing point for freight carriages going from Ukraine to Romania and from Romania to Ukraine," Yurii says. It is crucial for Ukraine’s connection to the EU single market and for the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, the new transport routes that keep goods moving to and from Ukraine despite the ongoing war.
Connecting Ukraine’s railway network, which traditionally runs on tracks with a width of 1520 mm, to that of the EU, "will allow us to increase the volume of goods that are transported from the EU to Ukraine, and also exported from Ukraine to the EU."
In total, almost €43 million in EU funding is available for this project alone. The railway lines covered include the Poland-Ukraine border crossings at Medyka-Mostyska, which continues to Lviv, and the Dorohusk-Yogodyn crossing, which leads to Kovel. Lines at the Hungary-Slovakia-Ukraine crossing at Chop, and in Lviv, will also see an upgrade. In addition, similar works will be finalised shortly in proximity to Ukraine's border with Slovakia.
