The European Commission has published indicative maps of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) on the territories of Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, on its official website, the CFTS portal reports.
It also published TEN-T maps of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova.
According to the European Union, development of a trans-European network of railways and highways in cooperation with Eastern Partnership countries will make border crossings more efficient and improve road safety. Efficient transport networks create growth and jobs and enable to bring people closer together, and allow goods to move, the European Union said.
“The European Commission’s decision means that Ukraine is included in the Trans-European Core Transport Network and that it becomes an important participant in the development of a Europe-Asia transport corridor. The historical significance of this cannot be overestimated. For the first time, the Ukrainian transport network becomes part of the strategic transport and logistics corridors of the European Union. This is an important step towards infrastructural integration of Ukraine, which means that Ukrainian infrastructure is being modernized, gradually acquiring European quality, and is considered by the European Commission as an integral component of the European Union’s transport and logistics system,” Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian said.
“In Ukraine, the TEN-T maps include existing railways and highways. At the same time, according to transport expert Oleksandr Kava, four of the priority TEN-T railway routes in Ukraine remain non-electrified: the Dolynska-Mykolaiv railway route (an agreement on provision of a credit for electrification of this railway route has been signed with the EBRD and the EIB); the Korosten-Slovechno route (the feasibility study is ready); the Lviv–Ivano-Frankivsk-Chernivtsi-Romanian border route (draft documentation for electrification not yet prepared); the Zaporizhia-Volonovakha route (I hope that the route will soon return to the traditional electrified tracks through Donetsk)," he added.
As the CFTS reported earlier, the feasibility study for electrification of a railway line from Berdychiv to Ukraine’s state border with Belarus has been developed as part of a project for modernization of the Baltic Sea-Black Sea transport corridor.
The Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) intends to begin electrification of the Dolynska-Mykolaiv-Kolosivka line in March 2019.
The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is a European Commission policy directed towards the implementation and development of a Europe-wide network of roads, railway lines, inland waterways, maritime shipping routes, ports, airports and railroad terminals.
The objective of TEN-T is to connect the continent both from the west to the east and from the north to the south in the shortest possible time by “inserting the necessary segments of the transport network in the right places, thereby creating a single network instead of the existing transport mosaic”.
