Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has added eight new international and three domestic connections to its new schedule for 2025–2026, which will come into effect on December 14.
“The new schedule plans to increase the number of seats during peak periods by 20% and offer a total of 2 million seats over the year,” according to a press release issued by the company on Thursday, which states that in less than 11 months this year, the company has carried more than 25 million passengers, almost half a million more than last year.
It is noted that in July-August, UZ tested a model of additional transportation by using daytime shuttle trains between their “main” flights, which on peak days provided more than 7,000 additional seats per day. This formed the basis for planning for 2026.
“Since our rolling stock fleet remains limited, we must become much more efficient in order to transport even more passengers. Therefore, the 2026 timetable is fundamentally based on increasing efficiency: new shuttle flights, high-quality acceleration, and more carefully thought-out connections,” commented Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chairman of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia, on the changes.
Three trains are being added to domestic service: No. 47/48 (Kramatorsk) Barvinkove-Chop, No. 33/34 Kryvyi Rih-Ivano-Frankivsk, and the updated route of train No. 113/114 Kharkiv-Uzhhorod.
“The historic ”Bakhmut” route, which is the only train of social importance for Polissya and Volhynia, will be extended to Zakarpattia. This route should be seen primarily as an opportunity for residents of Zhytomyr, Olevsk, Sarny, Rafalivka, and other cities along the route to travel to the mountains (Slavske) and Zakarpattia (Uzhhorod), while maintaining reliable connections with Sumy and Kharkiv regions,“ commented the latest ”UZ.”
It was also announced that the Lviv-Vorokhta regional train, operated by a modern DPKr-3 diesel train, will run on a regular basis, and trains will run every hour between Lviv and Kyiv.
“This means that on the most popular route, Kyiv-Lviv-Kyiv, trains will run on a stable and regular schedule – every hour. The vast majority of trains will run year-round, with a few exceptions for the ”off-peak“ period,” the company explained.
As for international flights, the new schedule includes night train No. 7/346-347/8 Uzhhorod-Vienna, consisting of European railway sleeping cars, as well as trains No. 36/35, 32/37 Budapest-Nyíregyháza-Berehove, which will travel to Ukraine via the “Ferihéd” station (Budapest International Airport) and “Chop” also on European gauge tracks.
Moreover, an additional regional train No. 644/647 Uzhhorod-Zahony (via Chop) will allow passengers to transfer in Zahony to any of the regular trains of the Hungarian railway in the direction of Budapest.
Tickets for the new schedule for dates after December 14 are already on sale in the app and on the Ukrzaliznytsia website.
