One of the important components of the European integration of Ukraine, especially in the economic sphere, is the integration of Ukraine’s railway system into the European one.

It is a well-known fact that Ukraine inherited the railways with a track width of 1,520 mm from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, while in the west, historically, tracks of a narrower format were built, namely 1,435 mm.

With Ukraine moving towards closer economic, political and cultural rapprochement with the states of the European Union, it is becoming increasingly noticeable that the difference in the railway gauge is a problem. In recent years, a lot of analytical materials have been published regarding the proposed options and models for solving this problem, however, none of them looks like an axiom even now.

In July 2023, the strategy for integration of the railway systems of Ukraine and Moldova into the European one, developed by the European Commission together with the European Investment Bank, was published.

According to this strategy, the development of the 1435 mm track network is planned to be implemented in three stages, moving from west to east. At first, it is proposed to lay a track from Poland to Lviv, then, from there, in the second stage – to Kyiv, as well as an additional northern branch to the capital, and a connection between Lviv and Chop.

In the third stage, the developers see the continuation of the track further east – to Kharkiv and Dnipro, as well as the expansion of the network in the south of Ukraine, in particular the connection of Odesa with Chisinau, which at that time will also have built a European-style track connected to Romania.

In one of the previous analytical materials, Aurum Group experts estimated the total cost of replacing the entire railway network of Ukraine with the European gauge at 250 billion euros, and the hypothetical term of the implementation could be at least 20 years.

In general, this problem is not new for the states of the post-Soviet space, especially those that have become integrated into the European Union and faced logistical challenges for exporting their products.

First of all, it is worth noting that Lithuania has been a member of the European Union for almost 20 years, and thanks to its location, it occupies a transit place in the European transport logistics to the north.

Due to this, the “Rail Baltica” project is already being developed and implemented, aiming to connect Warsaw and Tallinn with a European-style 1435 mm railway by 2026-2028. At the same time, 93.7% of the total Lithuanian railway is still 1520 mm wide, being mostly used in domestic freight transportation and trade interaction with the neighboring Baltic States.

As a result of Russia’s aggressive policy, Lithuania’s “old format” railway is losing part of its transit value, and local carriers are increasingly choosing alternative options for transporting goods – in particular, road transport is actively developing, which, despite a relatively smaller load, is characterised by greater mobility and accessibility.

In the period from 2009 to 2019, the total share of freight transportation by rail decreased from 40.3% to 31.4%.

Nevertheless, in the future, the authorities plan to encourage carriers to give preference to rail transport in transporting goods for a distance over 300 km, due to the higher capacity and comparable environmental friendliness of the railway.

However, Mr. Stanislav considers the general technical level of railways in Lithuania insufficient in comparison with European standards, and therefore emphasizes on the development and modernization of these railways and the renewal of rolling stock, which is noticeably outdated, just like in Ukraine.

In order to improve the interaction of the Lithuanian 1520 mm railway with the railways of other EU countries, great attention is paid to the implementation of directives on technical interaction – the Trans-European Transport Network of the European Union (TEN-T) and the rolling stock system belonging to it. In the future, the design, modernization and construction of railway infrastructure, as well as the design and production of rolling stock in Lithuania, according to Stanislav Kachanovski, will be based on the Technical Cooperation Specifications (TSS), which are mandatory for all EU member states.

The Lithuanians, though they have a smaller size of the state and smaller total mileage of the railways, are currently not talking about a complete transition to another track gauge – only about improving the existing one and the ways of its integration into the European railway.

What about Ukraine? In the wake of rejecting everything Russian, one can hear in the information field, time and again, an idea to completely change the track in order to integrate into Europe, without taking into account economic expediency.

Nevertheless, we forget that Ukraine is not Lithuania, and the length of the tracks is not 2.3 thousand kilometers, but more than 20 thousand.

Alona Lebedieva: “We are also talking about a complete replacement of rolling stock and traction”

Alona Lebedieva, speaking in the European Parliament, July 2023.

Nevertheless, according to Alona Lebedieva, precisely in the long term, taking into account all the nuances, adaptation of Ukrainian production of railway products of a new model and corresponding rolling stock, adaptation of Ukrainian railway norms and standards to European norms – the unification of the railway networks of Ukraine and Europe will become an additional incentive for bilateral land trade and passenger traffic. But prior to that – will the game be worth the candles? And what are the prospects of payback for such a large-scale project, given the realities and future trends?

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One way or another, this will bring Ukraine even closer to Europe, which is definitely in line with the interests of future generations. As for us, here and now, we can only hope that the implemented steps will only help the Ukrainian economy, and will become an incentive for the renewal of the railway industry, ensuring a closer integration of the Ukrainian transport system into the European one.

This article was originally published by UKRAINIAN NEWS.

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