Poland blocks wide-gauge railway to Baltic ports because it fears competition with Ukrainian farmers – opinion

Due to the blockade of Ukrainian ports, European hubs took over cargo flows and earned hundreds of millions, if not billions, on this. At the same time, a wide gauge from Ukraine to the Baltics would solve the problem of Ukrainian exports.

This was stated in an interview with NV Business by Andriy Stavnitser, the owner of Ukraine’s largest private operator of cargo terminals on the Black Sea.

“If the Poles really wanted to help us, even at the beginning of the war, they would, for example, have allowed us to lay a railway branch to the Baltics. This is 500 km. Compared to the money that they gave us for various humanitarian projects, this is trifles,” Stavnitser noted.

He also emphasized: “A broad gauge from Ukraine to the Baltics would solve the problem of Ukrainian exports… And it would be an ideal solution. However, Poland has been blocking it for us for a long time, even before the war, citing its defense strategy dating back to 1968, according to which a broad gauge cannot enter Poland so as not to bring “Soviet” tanks with it. We understand that this is nonsense. They are really afraid. But first of all, not of tanks, but of Ukrainian farmers.”

It has been repeatedly reported that in order to increase trade with Europe, Ukraine plans to build sections of a railway with a Euro-gauge.

There was a project to build a Euro-gauge railway in parallel with the existing 1520 mm tracks.

It was also reported that Ukrzaliznytsia has built a unique wagon that can travel both in Ukraine and on the Eurogauge.

In 2024, the business community announced that it was ready to build a wide railway track to the ports of Poland and Lithuania for the sake of grain exports. As stated by the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky, the construction of a wide railway track from the border with Ukraine to the ports in Polish Gdansk and Lithuanian Klaipeda will facilitate the delivery of Ukrainian grain and give Poland the opportunity to earn on its transit.

Tags: rail transportation, Ukraine, Poland