Ever since the war in Ukraine started, there has been immense pressure to intensify the transloading terminals between the standard gauge of the EU and the broad gauge of Ukraine. With outlooks of long-term utilisation of the new transloading capacities, various players introduced, re-started or temporarily relaunched transloading points here. At the beginning of July 2023, EP Cargo announced a new reloading terminal at the Slovak- Ukrainian border.
The mother company of EP Cargo, EPH, is a majority shareholder of Slovenské elektrárne, a Slovakian electricity producer. Among others, it owns a thermal power plant in Vojany in the east of Slovakia. It was using semi-anthracite coal from the Donbas region in Ukraine for a long time. It was transported directly by a broad gauge railway that continues on the Slovak territory all the way to the city of Košice, passing through Vojany. Biomass was added to the mix too. However, with the railway siding built for a much bigger capacity than today, EP Cargo transformed it into a reloading facility for agricultural products from Ukraine.
Broad gauge wagons from Ukraine can now be shunted to the Vojany siding and be directly transloaded into standard-gauge wagons for further shipments to Polish, German, or Adriatic ports.
