You're reading: Infrastructure Ministry does not plan to transfer Ukrzaliznytsia to European gauge

The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine does not plan to change the state standards of railway track (a width of 1,520 mm), while European gauge (1,435mm) will be laid parallel to the already existing track on the Lviv-Kyiv-Odesa route with a further development towards Kharkiv and Dnipro, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“We will keep the existing standards. Regarding European gauge, we plan to implement it in the direction of Lviv-Kyiv-Odesa. Then we plan to expand it to Dnipro and Kharkiv, maybe a couple more cities,” he said.

According to the minister, now the main focus is on the project of European gauge in the direction from Lviv to Odesa through Kyiv.

“This year we start the development of a feasibility study together with the EU. This project will be focused on the cost of about Hr 10 billion. But we need to understand that we have no alternative,” Omelyan said.

In addition, according to him, the company needs to invest in infrastructure, since the existing infrastructure does not allow reaching peak speeds even for those trains that now Ukrzaliznytsia has.