In January, the Director General of Ukrainian Railways tweeted an unusual travel tip: “I am pleased that @lonelyplanet ranked the new Chisinau-Kiev connection among the eight best European rail trips of 2023.” Travel for out-of-town visitors, added 38-year-old Oleksandr Kamyshin added for his approximately 49,000 followers, “we will expand this year more”.
Lonely Planet’s recommendation and the reaction of the Ukrainian Railways came as a surprise. Reason enough to ask the world’s largest travel guide publisher and the head of the railways what the current situation is for the railways in Ukraine and what the future of tourism there is.
The railway has always played an important role in Ukraine, the railway network of a good 24,000 kilometers (not including occupied territories) is the third largest in Europe. Their importance increased during the war.
“We have now evacuated four million people and 120,000 pets who fled from Russian bombs and occupiers,” says Kamyshin. For him, the conversation with WELT is one of the last as chief railwayman – he will soon start a new job and take care of the integration of the Ukrainian railways into the European network.
Countless Ukrainian soldiers were also transported to the front and back home. Not to mention the stars and state guests, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Bono from the rock group U2, who traveled to the country and back by train – unharmed. All of this was done by the Ukrainian railways, in addition to the 17 million people they transport on their long-distance routes every year anyway.
Despite the war, a handful of foreign tourists were and are among the travelers, says Kamyshin: “For example, those who have been in the country for a while and want to fill up somewhere else,” as well as intrepid holidaymakers who wanted to show solidarity with Ukraine locally . But tourism on a grand scale is yet to come – “when the war ends with our victory”. Nobody can say when that will be, but: “We are already working on offers for train passengers.”
Although the Russian attackers regularly attack the infrastructure, including the railways, Ukrainian trains are as punctual as in only a few countries in peacetime: the rate is more than 90 percent, says Kamyshin. For comparison: In Germany in 2022, just 66.2 percent of long-distance trains were on time.
There are a number of reasons for this amazing punctuality. Firstly, the Ukrainian timetables provide for longer stops at train stations and thus time buffers. Secondly, the trains generally run slowly (rarely faster than 90 km/h), so delays can be made up more quickly. Third, there are a large number of diesel locomotives that can run even when the power goes out.
Fourth, the problematic heritage of the Soviet era – too many lines, too many employees – proves to be an advantage in times of war: trains can be rerouted relatively quickly if necessary, for example when tracks have been bombed. Engineers and track workers are readily available across the country to carry out any necessary repairs immediately. “We’ll start doing this as soon as the air raid alarm has been lifted,” says Kamyshin. All would have an iron will to persevere and move on. All of this allows the state railway to react flexibly to whatever happens and to keep operations running.
The railway company answered the question of how dangerous train travel in Ukraine is at the moment: “In principle, a bomb can fall anywhere, even in a café right next to your apartment,” says a passenger information sheet. “However, a train is a much harder target to hit because it’s moving. In addition, well-trained employees ensure that everything works.” In addition, larger train stations have air raid shelters and usually also underground passages to the platforms, which can also serve as shelters.
The Chisinau-Kiev connection, which has now been chosen by Lonely Planet, already existed in Soviet times, but was discontinued in 1998. In 2022, after the start of the war, operations resumed and the cross-border track systems were renewed – also to enable the approximately 200,000 Ukrainians who fled to neighboring Moldova to visit their homes.
This clearly distinguishes the route from the other train journeys that the travel guide publisher recommends for 2023, for example a leisurely journey on the night train from Vienna to La Spezia in Italy or trips on the new high-speed trains across Spain’s idyllic landscapes.
Travel writer Tom Hall, who compiled the list for Lonely Planet, chose the route on purpose. “I started following Kamyshin on Twitter and was blown away by the role the railroad played in the war,” says Hall, who through previous travels has become a fan of the punctuality of Ukrainian trains, the eastern landscapes and the friendliness of the people people was. He likes that the connection is called “Siegeszug”: “The train is a symbol of resilience and confidence. It proves that the country cannot be defeated.”
Hall sees inclusion in the list of the eight best European rail routes in 2023 not only as an act of solidarity with Ukraine. He also wants to get train passengers to think: “I just like the idea of charging all the different ideas of relaxed ’travelling for the sake of travelling’ with a message. Driving this route is a deeply human issue.”
Still, Hall advises vacationers to wait for more peaceful times before attempting this new route, which currently operates once every two days; however, this frequency should be increased if necessary. Which is not unrealistic, because the connections to the west are to be expanded. “Before the 2014 war, the five most profitable railway lines all went to Moscow,” says Kamyshin. With the attack, however, travel to and from Russia has come to a complete standstill.
“In the meantime, the Russians have offered to restore the connections ‘for security reasons’. I gave them the same answer that our army gave to the Russian warship.” Kamyshin is referring to the famous response of a Ukrainian soldier to the Russian demand for the surrender of Snake Island. He had radioed back: “Russian warship, fuck you!”
“I’m sure my generation will not be ready to reconnect with Russia,” adds Kamyshin, who lost more than 300 rail workers to deadly Russian attacks. “Instead, we will expand ties with the West.”
The reopened Kiev–Chisinau route is part of the major Ukrainian project to improve the western connection – initially towards Moldova, Romania and Poland. There are not only political but also practical reasons for this: “We now have ten times as many passengers in the direction of the EU,” says Kamyshin. “Before the war there were 140,000, since the beginning of the war there have been 1.4 million travelers.”
However, there is one major hurdle that makes a speedy western connection difficult: the Ukrainian railways have a gauge of 1520 millimeters, which was common in the former Soviet Union, while most European countries use the standard gauge of 1435 millimeters. Last year, Ukraine already upgraded a line to standard gauge near the Polish border to allow for easy transit of Polish trains and to better connect western Ukraine with Poland.
There are plans to convert other lines in the Ukraine to standard gauge, which will then allow international trains from Berlin, Warsaw or Prague to travel directly to Lemberg (Lviv). There is then a broad gauge connection to other Ukrainian locations. “I don’t think Ukraine will switch to the standard gauge altogether,” says Professor Markus Hecht, a railway expert at the TU Berlin. That is too complicated and too expensive. “In addition, the broad gauge offers advantages, such as the use of heavier freight cars.”
The charm of Ukrainian trains should not be underestimated, believes Iryna Slawinska, journalist for “Ukrajinska Pravda” and production manager at Kiev’s cultural radio station. She fondly remembers the summer holidays in Crimea and the train trip there with the family: “Tea and coffee were always ordered on the train and served in beautiful cups. Even a mediocre tea tastes good in them. Now, as an adult, I always order tea on the train to cherish those childhood memories.”
Slawinska also hopes that many tourists will come by train in the future. “On the one hand as a gesture of solidarity, on the other hand because Ukraine is a beautiful country that is easy to travel by train. But it’s better to wait until times are safer.”
Kamyshin believes that Ukraine will benefit from the increasing popularity of rail travel. “When the war is over, many western travelers will come to Ukraine, and they will come by train.”
He relies primarily on night trains: “Many have been discontinued in the EU – in Ukraine you can continue to enjoy them.” This type of travel is relaxing and cheap, “and you don’t lose any time because you wake up in a new city in the morning and is right in the center”.
Who knows, maybe there will even be direct night trains between Berlin and Kiev after the war? By 2012, this connection had been in the course book for years.
Text translation from English by Michael Kellner.
Sally McGrane lives in Berlin and loves trains, writes for the New York Times and is a crime writer; In 2022 her political thriller “The Hand of Odessa” was published (Verlag Voland
The Ukrainian army is currently losing many soldiers in the fighting in the east of the country. Our local reporter was able to see how serious the situation was one night with his own eyes. On board a converted school bus, doctors treat wounded soldiers from the front lines.
Quelle: WELT/ Ibrahim Naber, Viktor Lysenko, David Körzdörfer
