Ukrainian Railways sends broad-gauge railcars on 3rd test trip to Warsaw

MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Railways has sent standard broad-gauge railcars to Warsaw on their third trial trip with a change to European-gauge railway carts.

Ukrainian Railways expects regular train services to be launched in 2025, Ukrainian media quoted head of the company's passenger branch Oleg Golovaschenko as saying a departure ceremony for the first trip of the Kiev-Budapest train on Sunday.

"Broad-gauge railcars went on their repeat test trip to Warsaw. This work does not stand still [...]. We highly hopes that broad-gauge railcars will start traveling to Warsaw in 2025," Golovaschenko said.

The tests are aimed at validating the compatibility of Ukrainian Railways' standard passenger cars with the Polish Railways' upgraded infrastructure, he said.

It was reported earlier that Ukrainian Railways tested broad-gauge railcars on a trip to Warsaw in a train which included 14 standard-gauge Ukrainian railcars, which were reequipped with narrower 1,435mm European railway carts in Yagodin.

Ukrainian Railways expects to increase the availability of seats for direct train services between the Ukrainian and Polish capitals by two or three times by launching these trains on a regular basis.

A train made of narrow-gauge RIC-type railcars is running on the Kiev-Warsaw route. As there is no possibility to increase the fleet of this type of carriages, the number of passenger seats on the route is limited, which provokes a frenzied demand for tickets.