RegioJet, a private Czech railway and bus operator, intends to launch a direct night train to Ukraine in June 2020.
The train will operate on the Prague – Mostyska-2 route, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Czech media.
In particular, according to media reports, RegioJet plans a combined route – a night train from Prague to Mostyska and a bus from Mostyska to Lviv.
The train will depart in each direction once a day. The train will consist of 8-12 wagons. It will depart from Prague at 22:10 and arrive at the Ukrainian border railway station at 09:30. The train is expected to stop in Pardubice, Zábřeh, Olomouc, and Ostrava (Czech Republic), as well as in Krakow and Rzeszow (Poland).
“The goal is to transport passengers, especially between the Lviv region in Ukraine and key centers in the Czech Republic and other EU countries,” RegioJet’s spokesman Aleš Ondrůj said.
The European standard gauge of 1435 mm reaches the Mostyska-1 train station in the Lviv region (the next station after the Mostyska-2 station). This is what determined the choice of the future train’s final destination in Ukraine.
Leo Express, another Czech operator, recently announced plans to launch a train to Mostyska.
As the CFTS portal also reported, the Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) has declared its readiness to allow private passenger carriers to operate on its rail network. In particular, the company disclosed negotiations with RegioJet and said that this carrier was seeking to establish a rail link with Ukraine by launching a train to Mukacheve.
