Ukraine to open 6 more border points for rail freight to Europe

Ukrainian Railways plans to open six additional border crossings for rail freight to Europe. Three facilities will be added on the border with Poland, two on the border with Romania and one on the border with Moldova. Some of the border points could be operative within three months, as it is just a matter of documentation work.

This was revealed by Valery Tkachev from the national railway company during the conference “Ukrainian exports – how get access to the sea”, according to Ukrainian press center GMK. With the additional six, there will be a total of 19 border points between Ukraine and European countries.

Which border points?

Ukrainian Railways plans to build three additional checkpoints on the Polish border, of which it revealed the location Rawa-Ruska – Grebenne and Starzhava – Krostsenko. Two more junctions are planned on the border with Romania, on the Delovo-Valea Visheului section, and one on the border with Moldova, at Berezino – Basarabeasca.

The latter was officially opened in August, as announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. It is in fact an old, 22-km railway line that was no longer used, and has been reinstated to offer a valid alternative route from the port of Odessa to the Black Sea. The documentation is currently under preparation for the first services to run.

The other two border crossings that could be operative in the next three months are on the border with Romania. The three border points to Poland are still under construction and need until 2023-2024 to be completed, as she was quoted explaining by GMK.

13 border crossing not enough

Ukraine currently has thirteen border crossings for freight transportation to and from Europe, at the borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. This is not sufficient to accommodate the growing number of trains exporting cargo from Ukraine to Europe.

Moreover, the existing border points operate on half the available capacity, underlined Tkachev. “Every day, Ukrainian Railways handles 1.7 thousand railcars, or about 110 thousand tons of cargo, while it could handle up to 3.42 thousand railcars. The main reason for the insufficient use of existing opportunities is the unavailability of the infrastructure of the partner countries to handle the entire volume of Ukrainian cargo for a number of reasons, the main of which are the lack of locomotives and limited capabilities in working with rolling stock for a wide track”, he was cited.

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Ukraine – Moldova rail section reopens after 23 years