In a first for Ukraine, the train station in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia’s rail hub, is being outfitted this summer with a ‘transcontinental’ platform, serving two rail gauges

In a first for Ukraine, the train station in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia’s rail hub, is being outfitted this summer with a ‘transcontinental’ platform, serving two rail gauges. On one side, EU-bound passengers will board European rail gauge trains. On the other side, Ukraine-bound passengers will board trains traveling on the wider, former Soviet gauge. In September, Ukrzaliznytsya is to launch a Mukachevo-Budapest train entirely on European gauge tracks, ending the need for rail car changes at the border. The new train will take six hours to travel 400 km to Budapest, stopping at the Hungarian cities of Debrecen and Nyiregyhaza. With new narrow gauge tracks, Ukrainian Railways plans direct service from Zakarpattia to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Yevhen Kravtsov, the railways chairman, writes on Facebook.