Joint stock company JSC Ukrainian Railways is inaugurating a railway line built to Europe’s track width standard with funding from the European Union. The new 22 km, 1435 mm gauge line connects the western Ukrainian cities of Uzhhorod and Chop, facilitating freight and passenger rail connectivity...
For this, it means we’ll have to build some new railways too, something which proved to be a mammoth task for all the politicians looking rather to burry our railway system instead of improving it (or it could be a boon for their plans to embezzle money, anything that works).
Seems to me a win-win scenario. Remember that Ukraine is actually remarkably good at railways - especially at manufacturing large numbers of comfortable and good-value sleeper wagons, which the rest of europe lacks, and also at maintaining their system in such adverse circumstances - their punctuality today is still much better than DB. On the other hand the track routes in Ukraine are anything but direct, dating from 19th century when capital cities were Petersburg and Vienna (so they align better N-S than E-W), so there’s a lot of potential to make them straighter. The obstacles maybe rather regional mistrust - whether politicians in Suceava accept the status of Chernivtsi - a similar question as whether hungarians / slovakians accept Uzhhorod, polish Lutsk or Kovel,…? Better passenger transport links could help to build trust.