USAID to allocate $225 million for the construction of the Eurotrack Lviv-Mostysk

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to allocate $225 million for the construction of a European railroad from Mostyska to Lviv. This is stated in a USAID press release.

«USAID will provide Ukrainian Railways (UZ) with technical support in the construction of a two-track section, which will speed up the transportation of Ukrainian goods to the EU, and those Ukrainians returning from evacuation outside the country will be able to get home faster,» the message says.

The combination of the Lviv railway junction with European railway corridors will allow agricultural products to be loaded directly into wagons designed for standard European gauge, which will make it possible to deliver these goods to ports and markets in Europe as soon as possible.

As Ukrainian and European railways use different gauges, there is a need to reload railcars at border crossings. It can take more than 5 hours to reload one train, which limits the number of trains that can cross Ukraine’s borders with European countries per day.

The construction of a 75 km long double-track railroad section will connect Lviv, which is planned to become one of the main railway junctions in western Ukraine, with the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

As GMK Center reported earlier, on November 24 USAID, Ukrainian Railways, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction Oleksandr Kubrakov and US Ambassador Bridget Brink signed Memorandum of understanding regarding the relevant project – the construction of a 1435 mm wide Eurotrack on the section from Mostyska station, which is located on the border with Poland, to Lviv (Sknyliv). The further development project will include connecting the Eurorail with Uzhgorod, Kovel, Chernivtsi, and at a later stage – with Kyiv and the east of Ukraine.