Three months after the laying of the first rail and sleeper for a new European standard gauge (1435 mm) track on the Chop - Uzhhorod line, which took place on 11 April in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and the head of Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) Yevhen Liaschenko, the project has not progressed.
Oleksandr Krasnoshtan, a former Ukrzaliznytsia executive who now works for the Czech private rail operator RegioJet, stated this in a Facebook post, the CFTS portal reports.
"Three months ago, following a post by Denys Shmyhal, there was great enthusiasm: the construction of a European-gauge railway to Uzhhorod had begun. The first track was laid, signaling that Ukrainians would soon have a fantastic opportunity to travel to the EU. Three months later, however, the enthusiasm has waned: the first track remains the only one laid so far. As a result, optimism is fading," he wrote.
As previously reported, the project involves the construction of 22 km of European standard gauge railway. It also includes the reconstruction of artificial structures, facilities, and engineering support networks. The next phase of the project will be the electrification of the European gauge line.
The project is to be implemented with 50% grant co-financing from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The total cost of the project is UAH 1.3 billion. The project implementation period is 14 months.
In addition, there are plans to conduct a feasibility study on the possible extension of the European gauge railway from Uzhhorod to Lviv. This would be an important step towards integrating Lviv into two European transport corridors that are part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T): the Rhine-Danube Corridor and the Mediterranean Corridor.
