, the railroad’s northwest hub, and Izov, on the border with Poland. “Electrification of this route will lay a solid foundation for increasing European transit traffic,” Yuryk said. The line connects with a 400 km Soviet gauge Polish track that supplies Ukrainian ore to steel plants in Sławków, near Katowice. By using this track, Chinese shippers could send their cargo halfway across Poland without a rail gauge change since crossing the China-Kazakhstan border.