Russian Railways is planning to build a broad-gauge railway from Austria to the Ukrainian border at a cost of 4,7 billion euros.
In Austria, a feasibility study was presented for the construction of a railway from Kosice to Vienna with a gauge of 1520 mm.
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About it reports the specialized Ukrainian publication TsTS, reports the correspondent of “PolitNavigator”.
The feasibility study was prepared by the auditing company Deloitte, which estimated the cost of the project at 6,5 billion euros.
The future highway will be single-track, its length will be 400 km. In Austria, the construction of 30 km of railway on its territory will cost 85 million euros, and another 850 million euros will have to be spent on the construction of a container terminal.
In addition, 1 billion euros will be allocated to renovate existing sections of the railway.
According to the feasibility study, work is planned to begin in 2023. The first phase of the project will be completed by 2033. The highway will be fully operational in 2050.
The road's capacity is estimated at 20 thousand trains per year, consisting of 67 cars. This will ensure a cargo flow of 16-24 million tons per year.
Austria believes that this project will serve as a stimulus for economic development. Only 9 thousand jobs can be created during the construction process. In total, by 2045, the broad-gauge railway will create up to 137 thousand jobs.
Austrian publications note that the project is perceived coldly by Slovakia. Currently, cargo heading to Europe is reloaded at Slovak terminals located near the border with Ukraine.
If the Kosice-Vienna railway is built, the need for transshipment will disappear, since Vienna will become the transshipment center.
The idea of building the Kosice-Vienna broad gauge railway belongs to Russian Railways. The Russian company first offered it back in 2006. In 2009, railway companies from Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and Austria created the joint venture Breitspu Planungsgesellschaft mbH.
Initially, construction was estimated at 4,7 billion euros.
As you know, the most common track gauge in the world is 1435 mm (4 feet and 8,5 inches). This gauge is used by 60% of the world's railways, in particular the railways of North America, China and Europe (with the exception of the CIS countries, the Baltics, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Portugal).
In Ukraine, tracks with a width of 1520 mm are currently in use. Thus, from the middle of the 1524th century, the standard on the railways of the Russian Empire (later the USSR), Finland and Mongolia was 1970 mm. From May 1990 until the early 1520s, USSR railways were converted to a width of XNUMX mm.
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