SKPL Cargo, a Polish private railway company, has announced that it will not launch the previously announced passenger rail service to the Ukrainian city of Khyriv.
Representatives of SKPL Cargo attribute the postponement to legal issues that have arisen on the Ukrainian side, the CFTS portal reports, citing the publication Rynek Kolejowy.
For many months, SKPL Cargo had announced plans to launch commercial passenger rail services from Sanok and Zagórz to Khyriv. The operator had planned to add two or three pairs of daily or weekday-only services to its timetable. Since the proposed rail services would not be financed by Polish local or central governments, the operator was granted "open access" to the railway infrastructure, formally allowing it to operate the services on the Polish side.
"The launch date of the services has been postponed multiple times. Initially, SKPL Cargo planned to launch the services in 2024. In May, it announced plans to launch the services in June. Then, in mid-June, it announced that international agreements were being finalized. Now, we know the trains will not be launched at all. There is yet another legal issue on Ukrzaliznytsia's side," said SKPL Cargo President Tomasz Strapagiel.
This is because Polish trains cannot enter Khyriv itself, even though it is a few kilometers away from the Kroscienko-Khyriv border crossing. The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) proposes that SKPL trains stop in Starzhava, which it considers a border station. Although this village is located closer to the border, it has a significantly smaller population than Khyriv, which also serves as a regional transport hub.
“We have informed the Ukrainian side that there is no economic justification for traveling to Starzhava Station,” said Strapagiel. He added that the company has suspended all work on commercial rail services to Sanok. In addition, according to him, local authorities on both sides of the border had been actively involved in efforts to launch the service.
Strapagiel also noted that the border crossing on adjacent Railroad Line 102 in Malhowice has not yet opened. This hinders the creation of transit routes from Sanok to Przemyśl via Starzhava and Nyzhankovychi.
Regular passenger train services from Sanok to Khyriv were suspended in 2010. Since then, there has been no regular service on the Ustrzyki–Kroscienko–Ukrainian border section of railroad line No. 108.
However, domestic trains operated by the Polish train operator Polregio have been running between Sanok and Ustrzyki for several years.
