Ukraine and Poland are jointly restoring the Eurasian railway corridors

JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" is actively working on the restoration and development of the Eurasian intermodal connection, and during the international exhibition InnoTrans 2024 in Berlin, Ukrainian and Polish railway workers reached an important agreement on cooperation in this area.

It should be noted that the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine led to significant disruptions in transport, in particular, the transportation of goods from China through the territory of Ukraine was practically stopped. However, despite the war, Ukraine remains an important transit corridor between Asia and Europe, thanks to its geographical location and developed railway infrastructure. A few days ago, during a meeting in Berlin, the Ukrainian and Polish sides agreed to focus joint efforts on increasing the capacity and efficiency of border crossings, as well as on expanding the railway infrastructure in border areas. This will increase the volume of freight transportation, shorten delivery times and reduce logistics costs.

Let us add that the restoration of the Eurasian railway corridors opens up new opportunities for the development of the Ukrainian economy. This will help increase the volume of exports of Ukrainian products to world markets, attract new investments and create new jobs. In addition, restoration of transport links with Asian countries will strengthen Ukraine's geopolitical position and increase its role in international trade.

However, it is worth considering that "Ukrzaliznytsia" will lose competition on the European market if it does not revise its tariff policy. According to experts, inflated railway tariffs lead to the fact that Ukrainian enterprises may also become uncompetitive on the European market. In particular, the president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Building Materials Manufacturers Kostyantyn Saliy said that foreign manufacturers will have the opportunity to enter the Ukrainian market. According to him, if the situation does not undergo changes, local enterprises will lose competition.

It should be noted that earlier the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure signed a memorandum with the European Railway Agency (ERA), which provides for cooperation in the field of technical harmonization of the railway systems of the European Union and Ukraine. As noted in the Ministry's announcement, the agreements include expert and technical support for the Ukrainian side of joining the single European railway space.

For this, in particular, it is envisaged to create a steering committee that will determine priorities and step-by-step plans to achieve the common goals of the parties. Currently, the Ukrainian side believes that the development of the domestic railway is one of the prerequisites for full transport integration into the European Union. In fact, the European integration of Ukrainian railways is one of the largest blocks of transport European integration of Ukraine. At the same time, it is important to understand that Ukraine is gradually engaged in the modernization of its own transport infrastructure and its adaptation to the standards of the European Union. This year, Ukrzaliznytsia started the construction of the Chop - Uzhhorod European track. This project is included in the list of projects of the strategic program for the development of railway infrastructure for the integration of Ukraine into the European Union. Laying of the first link of the rail sleeper grid of the new Eurotrack took place on April 11. This project will not only increase the comfort of passenger traffic and redistribute the passenger flow, but will also provide us with new logistical opportunities for freight transportation, and relieve traffic checkpoints. Thus, Uzhhorod becomes the first regional center to be connected to Europe by a European-style railway. Ukrzaliznytsia noted that the project will be implemented with 50% grant co-financing from the EU fund Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The total amount of the project is UAH 1.3 billion. The term of the project is 14 months. It envisages the construction of 22 km of railway track of the European standard, the reconstruction of artificial structures, objects and networks of engineering support, and the equipping of the track with two-way semi-automatic blocking and microprocessor dispatching centralization devices. In addition, it is planned to electrify the new European gauge of 1435 mm on the Chop - Uzhhorod section. The plans also include a possible extension of the Eurotrack from Uzhhorod to Lviv, which will be an important step for joining Lviv to two European TEN-T transport corridors — the Rhine-Danube and the Mediterranean.

But not only the border regions have projects for the development of transport infrastructure. It is already known that the "Lemtrans" group will build a "dry port" in the Vinnytsia community, which will improve the operational transportation and handling of cargo. The terminal will perform the function of a logistics hub with the appropriate infrastructure, only it will not operate on water, but on land. The new hub will help connect the central regions of Ukraine with the ports of Odesa and, via the Mostysk container terminal, with EU countries. At the first stage, the railway infrastructure and the first container yard with a capacity of 30 thousand TEU per year will be built. Meanwhile, 2,000 TEU is the capacity of the container warehouse, which will also be built in Phase I. It is noted that the amount of private investments is more than $15 million, and the construction itself is divided into two phases.

We will also remind you that earlier it became known about the willingness of domestic investors to finance the construction of a wide railway track from the border with Ukraine to the ports of Gdansk in Poland and Klaipeda in Lithuania. This should facilitate the delivery of Ukrainian grain and, by the way, give Poland the opportunity to earn from its transit. After all, if such a road is built to Gdańsk, Ukrainian companies will guarantee the appropriate scale of transportation along this route for 10 years in the future. In fact, this will give Poland the opportunity to build factories for the processing of Ukrainian grain on its own coast and to export ready-made products. As for logistics, there are many times more wagons for transporting grain in Ukraine than in Europe as a whole. That is why it is more logical for Ukrainian businessmen to build a 1,520 mm track from the Ukrainian border to the Polish coast, rather than to buy wagons on the European standard track.