The next destination of trains traveling from Mukacheve to the European Union will be a city in Slovakia, the CFTS portal reports, citing a Facebook post by Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian.
“The next is Slovakia via Euro tracks. This was recently agreed with my Slovakian counterpart,” the minister wrote while commenting on the test launch of a passenger train from Budapest.
“With convenient links with many Ukrainian cities and EU countries, Mukacheve has every change of becoming a major railway hub, and not just for passengers,” Omelian added.
Yevhen Kravtsov, the acting head of the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia), said last November that since a combined railway track (with both the 1520 mm and 1435 mm track gauges) ends 300 meters from the Mukacheve train station, Ukrzaliznytsia planned to build a train platform at the Mukacheve train station, from which passenger trains would be able travel to Hungary (Zahony, Budapest), Slovakia (Košice, Bratislava), and Romania (Satu Mare) on European-gauge (1435 mm) tracks. The platform has been built.
In addition to Mukacheve, Uzhhorod is also being considered in the context of linking the Zakarpattia region with Slovakia. For example, it was announced in in February this year that two options for a railway route from Uzhhorod to Kosice were being considered. The first option provides for switching trains from the European track gauge to the Ukrainian track gauge and vice versa in Matiasovce (Slovakia), for which it will be necessary to create the appropriate infrastructure. The second option involves extension of the European track gauge from Matiasovce to Uzhhorod. In this case, it will be necessary to construct just 11 kilometers of railway tracks.
