Uzhhorod – Bánovce nad Ondavou railway line

Užhorod – Bánovce nad Ondavou

Course book series (ZSSK) :

195

Route length:

44.686 km

Gauge :

1520/1435 mm

Route class :

D3

Power system :

3 kV =

Maximum slope :

5 ‰

Top speed:

80 km / h

Legend

		from Lviv (Львів)
	0.000	Uzhhorod (Uzhgorod)
		to Tschop (Чоп)
	4th	Minaj
		Uzhhorod-2 (Uzhgorod-2)
	8th	Tarnovce
	10	Šišlovce
	12	Palov
		Pavlovo (Павлово)
	12,750	State border Ukraine - Slovakia (since 1945)
	14th	Maťovce
		according to Haniska (ŠRT; 1520 mm)
	15.658	Maťovce (gauge change 1520/1435 mm)
	17th	Kapušanske Vojkovce
	18,449	Veľké Kapušany
	20.033	Veľké Kapušany zastávka
		Uzhhorod – Haniska (ŠRT; 1520 mm)
	22.765	Krišovská Liesková
		Udoch
		vlečka Elektráreň Vojany
	25.559	Vojany
		Laborec
	29,130	Drahňov
		State border Hungary - Slovakia (1938–1944)
	34,470	Budkovce
	37.332	Dúbravka
	39,602	Hatalov
	43,499	from and to Łupków
	44.686	Bánovce nad Ondavou
		to Michaľany

The Uzhhorod – Bánovce nad Ondavou railway is a railway connection in Ukraine and Slovakia . It runs from Uzhhorod (Ужгород, Hungarian: Ungvár , Slovak: Užhorod ) in Carpathian Ukraine via Veľké Kapušany to Bánovce nad Ondavou in Slovakia.

The section from Uzhhorod to Maťovce has been part of the Uzhhorod – Haniska line, which is exclusively used for cross-border freight traffic , since 1966 after being converted to Russian broad gauge . The line from the Ma vomovce gauge changing station to Bánovce nad Ondavou is normal gauge, and passenger trains run from Veľké Kapušany .

history

The line from Ungvár to Vaján (today: Vojany) was opened on November 1, 1910 by the Hungarian Northeast Railway (Magyar Északkeleti Vasút; MÉKV) as a local railway.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in October 1918 and the establishment of the new state of Czechoslovakia , the line was transferred to the newly founded Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD). One problem with the new state was that the railway network in particular was geared towards the old capitals Vienna and Budapest. From 1919, Czechoslovakia also included what was then Carpathian Russia , which had previously been part of Hungary. There was initially no direct connection with the rest of the country. In this situation, the railway troops of the Czechoslovak Army established a connection from Vojany to Bánovce nad Ondavou from January 1920, which was opened on October 20, 1921. For this purpose, used superstructure material from the second track on the Medzilaborce – Łupków line , which was dismantled for this purpose.

After the First Vienna Arbitration , the predominantly Hungarian-populated areas of Czechoslovakia and with it the stretch between Užhorod and Drahňov came back to Hungary in November 1938. The Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) operated this section from then on .

After the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union incorporated the former Carpathian Russia into its territory in June 1945. From then on it was part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as the Transcarpathian Oblast . The new state border arbitrarily set by the Soviet Union cut the line at km 12,750 between Palov (Pallo) and Maťovce. Cross-border travel was not taken up by the re-established ČSD, from then on passenger trains only ran between Maťovce and Bánovce nad Ondavou.

After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia initially continued its western-oriented economic policy. In February 1948, however, a communist government took power, which now promoted cooperation with the Soviet Union and integration into its economic area. At that time, only the Čierna nad Tisou – Čop railway border crossing existed between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union , which, despite extensive expansion, soon reached the limit of its capacity. In 1960, the cross-border connection Uzhorod – Veľké Kapušany - now wide-gauge - was reopened in order to supply the newly built Eastern Slovak Steelworks (VSŽ, today US Steel Košice) with Ukrainian iron ore. At the state border, the border stations Pawlowo in the Soviet Union and Maťovce in Czechoslovakia were built, in which cross-border goods can be reloaded and goods wagons can be rerouted. In this context, the tourist traffic to Veľké Kapušany was withdrawn, the Maťovce and Kapušanske Vojkovce stops were discontinued without replacement. From 1965, the newly built Vojany thermal power station was also supplied with coal from Ukraine via the connection.

In order to avoid the expensive reloading in ore and coal traffic, a continuous broad-gauge connection Užhorod – Haniska (ŠRT) was built from November 1965 , which was completely re-routed on Czechoslovakian territory. It runs largely parallel to the Veľké Kapušany – Bánovce nad Ondavou line.

At the end of the 1980s, the ČSD electrified the Maťovce – Bánovce nad Ondavou line. Electric rail traffic began on December 29, 1990.

Passenger train in Veľké Kapušany (2012)

On August 3, 1992, two freight trains collided head-on between Drahňov and Budkovce, and six railway workers were killed. At this point in time, the automatic route block was out of order due to the theft of cables and system components, and train traffic was provisionally handled using the train notification procedure . The total damage amounted to 38.3 million crowns .

On January 1, 1993, the line was transferred to the newly founded Železnice Slovenskej republiky (ŽSR) in the course of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia . On February 2nd, 2003 the ŽSR stopped the scheduled travel due to insufficient occupancy. After protests by the neighboring communities, passenger trains ran again from June 15, 2003 to December 9, 2012. The last annual timetable for 2012 only recorded two pairs of trains running on weekdays and Sundays.

In preparation for the reintroduction of tourist traffic, the route operator ŽSR had extensive renovation work on tracks and systems carried out from February 2019 at a cost of 1.4 million euros. Seven platforms and three crossings were repaired and modernized. The offices in the Hungarian-speaking area received bilingual signs throughout. On June 10, 2019, travel between Veľké Kapušany and Bánovce nad Ondavou was resumed with four pairs of trains every working day.

Web links

Individual evidence

[1] Timetable 1950

[2] "V auguste 1992 vyhaslo pri Budkovciach ŠEST životov"

[3] "20 rokov od tragickej nehody pri Budkovciach" on railpage.net

[4] "Naša téma: Obnovenie osobnej dopravy na trati 195 ZSR" on vlaky.net

[5] Information from the ZSSK on the resumption of travel

[6] Timetable - valid from June 9, 2019