photo: Flickr.com / Trainspotter LGs / Public Domain /ZSSK 350 017
The decision follows a draft project to secure rail passenger transport with Ukraine, which was approved by the Slovakian government last Wednesday.
Trains on the route from eastern Slovakia to Kyiv would now pass through the Pavlovo - Maťovské Vojkovce border crossing. Passengers will thus travel on a wide-gauge line. The mentioned line should end in Haniska near Košice, from where passengers would be taken by buses to the airport or the railway station in Košice.
According to the Trend news agency, the transport ministry announced that to introduce passenger transport, it is, first of all, necessary to complete the infrastructure not only for the passenger rail transport operators but also for the adequate performance of customs administration and border control in connection with the conditions of the Schengen Convention. However, attention should also be drawn to the agreement between the governments of Slovakia and Ukraine on border crossings, which falls within the remit of the Ministry of Finance.
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The Transport Ministry Has Failed the Assignment
Slovak Transport Minister Jozef Ráž was entrusted with the task of ensuring public passenger rail transport with Ukraine on the broad-gauge line at the beginning of this year. However, after consideration, there was a consensus that the given regulation exceeded the competence of the Ministry. The Government, therefore, adopted a new decision assigning the tasks to the individual ministries.
The Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the use of EU funds, Peter Kmec, is to be in charge of coordinating the project by the end of this year. Kmec has also been empowered to examine the possibility of funding it from European Union sources. The head of the transport ministry, Ráž, has been entrusted with finalizing the project, including its financial coverage.
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Currently, only freight trains run on the Pavlovo - Maťovské Vojkovce line. The project implementation costs are estimated at over EUR 7 million. Of this, the most significant item will be the preparation of the premises for border and customs control in Maťovské Vojkovce.