In Ukraine, a 24-kilometer European railway line with a standard gauge of 1435 mm connecting Chop and Uzhhorod has officially been launched. Thanks to the new infrastructure, passengers will be able to travel to European Union countries without the need for transfers — trains will run to Uzhhorod without changing wheelsets, significantly reducing travel time. The launch date for the new routes has not yet been announced.
This is reported by Finway
Significance of the Project for Railway Transportation
The opening of the European railway line was announced by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a press conference alongside the Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico. Additionally, the importance of this event was emphasized by the advisor to the head of the President’s Office and former member of the supervisory board of “Ukrzaliznytsia” Serhiy Leshchenko on his social media. At the same time, the company “Ukrzaliznytsia” has not commented on the situation.
“Today is a significant result for our railway workers… A new line, part of the European network, connecting Uzhhorod with Bratislava, Košice, Budapest, and Vienna. And this is just one of the first steps towards integrating the Ukrainian railway into the EU networks,” said Zelensky.
Details of the Infrastructure Project
Two parallel railway tracks have been laid between Chop and Uzhhorod: one corresponds to the broad gauge (1520 mm), and the other to the European standard (1435 mm). This allows for the avoidance of mandatory transfers at the border, making railway travel between Ukraine and the EU more comfortable and faster.
The total cost of implementing the project reached 1.3 billion UAH, half of which was financed from the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) fund. At the same time, despite the existence of a shorter 8-kilometer route from Uzhhorod to the border crossing Pavlovo-Matyievce with Slovakia, as of August 2025, the Slovak side does not allow the passage of Ukrainian trains on the European gauge through this crossing.
In the future, the laying of European railway lines is planned in Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Lutsk. However, a complete reconstruction of the entire railway network in Ukraine to European standards is currently not being considered due to high costs and unprofitability for freight transportation. The head of the board of “Ukrzaliznytsia” Oleksandr Pertsovskyi emphasized that Ukrainian freight trains have significant weight, much greater than in Europe, making a full transition to the European gauge impractical.