Bratislava paves way for Vienna-Moscow wide gauge railway

The Slovakian government has approved in principle its participation in the construction of a wide gauge railway link from Moscow via Košice and Bratislava to Vienna. However, critics have condemned the high costs of the project.

Plans become a reality

This has given new impetus to plans for the construction of a wide gauge railway link (1,520 millimetre gauge) from the Slovakian-Ukrainian border to Bratislava and Vienna. The link is designed principally to improve the flow of goods between Europe and Russia, though tourism should also benefit from it. It is hoped that this massive investment in railway infrastructure will give a decisive boost to solutions to the present economic crisis.

70 per cent project investment in Slovakia

At the present planning stage, the total cost of this international project in Slovakia is estimated at 5.674 billion euros. 70 per cent of the project volume will be realized in Slovakia. The total cost of investments in the Slovakian section of the line over the period 2010-2017 is estimated at 4.056 billion euros. In technical terms, the existing wide gauge railway will be extended right across Slovakia. There are plans for goods yards in the vicinity of Vienna and Bratislava. At the present time the line ends at Haniska goods yard near the eastern Slovakian town of Košice. In Vienna freight will be shifted onto the standard gauge railway, and in Bratislava onto Danube barges. On the Slovakian side, it will be necessary to construct 432 kilometres of railway, a new Danube bridge and a freight terminal in Bratislava. To this must be added the modernization of the existing wide gauge line from the national border to Košice, a total distance of 87 kilometres.

Financing from government budget doubtful

However, the project becomes problematical when it comes to partial financing from the Slovakian government’s budget. Planning for the period 2011-2017 provides for a government contribution of 20 per cent, or around 811.2 million euros. According to information from the Slovakian Ministry of Transport, this sum exceeds the resources available for cofinancing because Slovakia has already exhausted its budget for the period 2010-2013 with obligations for railway infrastructure projects. At the present time, therefore, Slovakian finance is not yet assured.

From the Slovakian point of view, the economic benefits of this project are not clear either. The Slovakian Ministry of Transport emphasizes that extending the wide gauge railway would only pay for itself with 14 train pairs a day, each of them transporting 3,000 tonnes of freight. This would enable the extended wide gauge line to carry around 18 million tonnes a year of freight until 2025. At the same time, according to calculations carried out by the Slovakian Ministry of Transport, expanding and modernizing existing handling capacities on standard gauge railways would make it possible to carry up to 20 million tonnes of freight a year through Slovakia. Thus on the basis of the Slovakia’s calculations to date, the economic benefits of extending the wide gauge railway are also uncertain.

Decision by the end of 2009

In concrete terms, a new feasibility study will be carried out by June 2009 to shed light on the economic benefits and efficiency of the wide gauge project. A decision by the government on whether or not Slovakia will participate in this project has been announced for the end of 2009.

Should the feasibility study prove positive for the project, the Slovakian Ministry of Transport will stipulate four basic preconditions for its realization. Who will be the investor? What will be the volume of the predicted flow of goods on the future wide gauge railway? How high will the actual costs be? And finally, Slovakia will also demand international guarantees in order to avoid problems that have repeatedly led to a gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine. The Austrian partner, Austrian Railways in Vienna, has also made similar demands.

Opposition criticizes waste

The political opposition in Slovakia is against the project, considering it a waste of public financial resources. The reason: only about 30 per cent of existing standard gauge rail freight capacity is already utilized in Slovakia An alternative in the opinion of the conservative opposition: Christian Democratic ex-premier Mikuláš Dzurinda argues that it would be better to invest in the construction of a North-South freeway in the east of Slovakia in order to link border regions with Poland and Hungary.



Further reading: Historic Moscow-Vienna railway project