On 11th April 2023, Ukrainian state railway UZ began construction of the Cop – Užhorod standard gauge railway line. The project is part of the integration of Ukraine's railway infrastructure into the EU. The project is intended to relieve the burden on road checkpoints by connecting Užhorod to the railway network as the first regional centre based on the European model. The EU is supporting the project with 50% co-financing from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding programme after UZ successfully took part in a competitive project selection process in 2022. The total costs amount to around €31 million (UAH 1.3 billion) and the planned project duration is 14 months. The project includes the construction of 22 km of track to European standards and equipping the line with modern command control and signalling (CCS) technology. It will enable direct passenger connections from Užhorod to Europe and create transfer connections for journeys from Ukraine to Europe. In the future, there are also plans to electrify the line and possibly extend the European gauge to Lviv in order to improve the connection to the European TEN-T transport corridors.
