European Railroad Discussion > Double Departure, Volovets, Ukraine

Double departure, Volovets Station.  October, 2019. 08:00 am

The overnight train is headed southwest to its terminus in Uzhorod near the Slovakian border. The EMU train is, I think, a regional train headed north to Lviv. 

Double track line through the Carpathians, through the newly replaced Beskyd Tunnel.  The town of Volovets is about 25 km south of Volovets Pass.  

I've been meaning to do a sequential series of photos from a fall, 2019 Eastern Europe adventure.  But I've been slow getting started.  So I'll just post a few interesting shots and videos for general interest.  

You can search my moniker under "static photography" to see other Europe and Asia photos I have posted.  

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/Gucb2MKmkQA7DF4M8

Best to all, 
Ted in UT

Edit, June 16, 2020 -- I realized that I had just gotten off the overnight train,  I had taken it from its origin city of Kiev.  It was headed for Uzhhorod, three hours further southeast.  



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/20 13:22 by gobbl3gook.

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Excellent video - thanks for posting. Refreshing o see somewhere totally different. Also, a pleasure to note - no graffiti on the stock, which now blights so much of Europe. chris uk.

I've never seen graffiti on any Ukrainian passenger stock that we have ridden. Not much in the major cities either. Must be a cultural thing as Ukrainian also seem to take more pride in their appearance than many other countries.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've never seen graffiti on any Ukrainian
> passenger stock that we have ridden. Not much in
> the major cities either. Must be a cultural thing
> as Ukrainian also seem to take more pride in their
> appearance than many other countries.

That's interesting Anderson, I've noticed that but never thought much about it. You're right I can't remember seeing much graffiti in Ukraine. Not on rolling stock and not that much on buildings. Certainly nothing like in the Balkins, Bulgaria, or Hungary. 
By the way is the longer distance Ukrainian roliing stock Ukrainian built? It looks on the outside like any other Ammendorf style equipment as do the interiors. But there are differences like the window size and the aluminium moulding around the windows. The Georgian Railways have similar equipment as do a couple of the Stans. While Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus have straight Ammendorf stock or newer Transmash built equipment. In the case of Armenia and Moldova a lot of the cars still have Ammendorf builders plates in the corridors. 

Graet video, looks like a nice place.

I'm glad you all like the video.  It was a pretty sweet morning in Volovets.  

Getting Short -- I'm not sure who manufactures the cars.  I assumed they were all ex-Soviet cars, from pre-1991.  But, there are an awful lot of them out there, and 29 years is a long time for not refreshing the fleet.  So they're probably churning them out of some facility somewhere.  

Ukraine has about 150 sleeper trains running every night.  Average 15 cars long.  That's 2250 cars in service every night, and they'd need more to have as backups, and to cycle through rebuilds.  Also, the 150 number is just an educated guess looking at the train board in Kiev.  It could be 200 or 250 trains every night.  

It costs about $2/hr for a berth in a 4-bed compartment.  I rode from Volovets to Kiev and back, was a pretty good ride, though ended a little early on the run into Kiev.  I like to sleep late... 

Ted in UT

 

Thanks for this video.  After viewing it twice, I see now why you continued the recording after the last train had departed.  That is, it was interesting what route some of the departing passengers took...
 

The equipment there seems to be well cared for. Some cars appear to be newer than others. Most if not all are still coal heated with the Provdnik (car attendant) doing the firing. Never a fear of running out of heat but we have experienced AC failures. It is amazing to see so many lengthy overnight passenger trains at Kiev Passenger every night going mostly to domestic locatoins. My understand is that now nothing is running but hopefullly Mr. Zelinski will allow them to return soon.

Norm -- have you ever considered going to Ukraine?  The Tioga Pass would fit right in.  Just need to swap out the trucks.  
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3219862,3221116#msg-3221116
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3717074,3719528#msg-3719528

And it was fun seeing everyone passing through the rail train to get home.  Ukraine is a casual, passive place.  

Anderson -- yes, pretty well kept up.  Especially the overnight trains.  Magnificent from the outside, and just fine on the inside.  The local trains are a bit threadbare at times, but still reasonably comfortable, and perfectly servicable. 

I spent 9 weeks in Europe in 2019.  Rode 48 different trains as part of the journey, and bicycled about 1000 kilometers.  

I guess I'm not too surprised that the rail system shut down for the pandemic.  I would think it would all get restored when it is safe to do so.  Other countries I'm more worried about the rail systems, like Poland, Czech Republic.  Both are building freeways all over the countryside, so potentially undermining local passenger rail services just like the US did in the 1960s.  

Ted in UT