Bratislava-Kyiv train starts this December

A new daily train service between Bratislava and Kyiv will begin next month, following an agreement reached on November 7 between Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec (Hlas) and Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy, reports the respected Eastern Slovak media outlet Korzár.

“Direct train connections from Kyiv to Bratislava will begin on December 15, 2024,” confirmed Kmec.

Initially, the plan had been to end the route in Košice, the second largest Slovak city situated in eastern Slovakia. On the Ukrainian side, a train from Kyiv will run on a broad-gauge track, with passengers transferring to a narrow-gauge train in Čierna nad Tisou, a Slovak border town, where border and customs checks will also take place in an expedited process.

Taras Kachka (l) and Peter Kmec (r). (source: Korzár/Michal Frank)

The service will run once a day, and Kmec noted that Slovakia has observed significant interest not only from Ukrainian passengers seeking to reach the European Union, but also from Europeans wishing to travel from Košice to Kyiv.

Kachka emphasised that the decision to launch the train service was made for governmental, rather than commercial, reasons. Whether the train will prove efficient remains to be seen.

Earlier this week, Korzár also reported on a four-hour-long train journey from Košice to Mukachevo, western Ukraine. Officially billed as a fast train, it is in fact a modest motor train with two carriages. In contrast, the Hungarian train operating between Ukraine and Budapest, Hungary, is a modernised service.

Čierna nad Tisou railway station. (source: Korzár/Michal Frank)

Mukachevo (source: Korzár/Michal Frank)

Slovakia’s “fast train” also lacks a closed waste system, meaning that after using the toilets, passengers must step on a lever to let waste flow straight onto the tracks. This system makes the toilets unusable at stations. As one passenger quipped, “We’re just sending the oldest bucket,” noting that this is the first experience many Ukrainians will have with the European Union.

The train, Zakarpatia, stops in Čierna nad Tisou and the Ukrainian town of Chop.

Returning from Ukraine, however, passengers often face problems at the border, Korzár adds. In 70 percent of cases, a passenger is found carrying meat products, typically sitting at the back of the train. These products cannot be taken out of Ukraine, a country that has been fighting Russia since February 2024.

Before the war, many Slovak tourists regularly visited western Ukraine, taking trips to places like Mukachevo Castle or local swimming pools.