Construction of European Gauge Rail in Ukraine

The EU may finance the construction of European gauge rail in Ukraine, as reported by the railway portal Railway Supply.

The state-owned enterprise “Ukrzaliznytsia” hopes to secure financing for three to four infrastructure development projects under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program.

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The Head of Ukrzaliznytsia, Yevhen Lyashchenko, revealed this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“Official negotiations with DG Move (the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission) and CINEA (the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency) regarding projects that need to be submitted by the end of January 2024 for co-financing from the CEF program began in September. Last week (the second week of September), we had our first founding meeting on this topic, where we discussed a list of promising projects,” noted the head of Ukrzaliznytsia.

He also emphasized that this is a competition, and not all projects will be selected. Therefore, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to submit as many options as possible.

“We hope to secure financing for at least 3-4 projects. First and foremost, this includes the Mostyska-Sknyliv project (the construction of a 1435 mm gauge railway line from the state border with Poland to Lviv). Also, the equally important project of reformatting the Lviv hub into a European railway hub,” specified Yevhen Lyashchenko.

According to Yevhen Lyashchenko, the Mostyska-Sknyliv project is highly relevant as it is one of the busiest and most priority sections.

“However, if we look at the perspective, we are launching a passenger service project in October – Warsaw-Rava Ruska-Brukhovychi (a locality in the Lviv suburbs, 8 km). If we want to create a full-fledged Lviv-Warsaw route, we will need to modernize the entire Rava Ruska-Brukhovychi section (54 km) to enter Lviv on a 1435 mm gauge track in that direction. Mostyska-Sknyliv is also a 1435 mm gauge line that enters Lviv. In this configuration, the Lviv railway hub can already be considered as a separate project, as a hub that will connect to European corridors. Installing new 1435 mm tracks directly at the station is not realistic. Therefore, we will present a separate project for the Lviv transport hub, where as many European passenger routes and a significant volume of freight transport as possible will converge,” explained the Chairman of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia.

Furthermore, discussions are underway for the submission of railway projects concerning the Yagodyn-Kovel route as a stage in the development of the Warsaw-Kyiv route, as well as projects related to Euro gauge communication with Romania from Chernivtsi.

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The head of Ukrzaliznytsia clarified that the program provides financing for only 50% of the project cost, subject to approval by the European Commission.

Ukrzaliznytsia will need to seek the remaining half separately.

“But it is essential to understand that such large-scale projects go beyond Ukrzaliznytsia’s business projects; they are strategic infrastructure projects of the state of Ukraine. Approaches to their financing and further support need to be incorporated into the strategy for the recovery of our country,” he added.

As previously reported, Ukraine and Moldova will be eligible for EU financing for infrastructure projects along the “paths of solidarity.”

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