Ukraine exploring feasibility of launching new railroad routes with Poland

MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - The Lvov regional state administration and Ukrainian Railways are looking into the feasibility of launching routes from the Polish cities of Sianok and Peremysl to Khirov in the Lvov region, head of the regional state administration Maxim Kozitsky said at a ceremony of launching the Ivano-Frankovsk-Lvov-Lublin-Warsaw train (with a change at the Rava-Ruska railway station) last Sunday.

"I have a dream that Lvov will become a railway hub and that we will establish a new transportation hub at Sknilov. So that we will launch the Sknilov-Warsaw train from Lvov and a train via Mostyska to Krakow. And these small stations Sianok, Peremysl - Khirov... the feasibility of launching trains (on the route) is being evaluated now. The question is who will be the customer," Kozitsky was quoted by Ukrainian media as saying.

SKPL said that two trains should be launched to Khirov: one from Sianok and another from Peremysl, SKPL CEO Tomasz Strapagiel said in an interview with CTC last Friday. SKPL has filed a corresponding application to the Subcarpathian Voivodeship administration and to Ukrainian Railways, he said.

"First and foremost, traffic will be launched to Rava-Ruska, and even then, maybe to Khirov, as well. When exactly this will happen, I do not know. However, I would like to emphasize that the infrastructure has already been prepared, as the rail tracks to Khirov in both directions have already been repaired," Strapagiel said.

SKPL provided rolling stock for the Ivano-Frankovsk-Lvov-Lublin-Warsaw route with a change at the Rava-Ruska railway station after the Polish government representatives made a proposal to help resolve the issue of launching a train on the European gauge track in Ukraine, Strapagiel also said. This is the shortest way from Warsaw to Lvov, he also said. Ukrainian partners assured SKPL that the rail link has great prospects, even in the event of resumption of flights from the Lvov Airport, Strapagiel said.

Among the projects that will be submitted by the end of January 2024 to the contest from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF, which provides for co-financing of vital infrastructure projects with funds from the European Union) will be primarily a project to build a 1,435mm European railroad from the Polish border to Lvov (Mostyska-Sknilov) and a project to reconfigure the Lvov hub into a European railroad hub, Ukrainian Railways CEO Yevgeny Lyashchenko earlier said in an interview with Ukrainian media.

This was preceded by Ukrainian Railways' statement on the completion of rebuilding two railway sections in the Lvov region, which connect Khirov with the border stations of Starzhava and Nizhankovichi (state border with Poland). The possible future launch of a Polish Railways passenger train in transit through Ukraine is being considered, cutting the trip distance from the border town of Kroszenko in Bershad County to Peremysl by five times.