The first passenger train scheduled to use the Bukovyna Gateway terminal never reached it. At the 28 September opening, the service stopped at Hlyboka station, about 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) away, and passengers were transferred to coaches for the ceremony near Chernivtsi, according to three travellers and the published railway timetable.
The episode has brought a larger scandal into view: the terminal was formally accepted as complete even though its new rail connection ended short of the site. The project, promoted as a direct passenger link between Ukraine and Romania, cost UAH 1.18 billion (about €25 million), according to the state procurement register. Officials had advertised daily trains from the new hall.
The missing stretch
A site inspection on 2 October by rail engineer Zétény Szőke found track laid for 5.7 kilometres (3.5 miles) of the planned 8.4-kilometre (5.2-mile) branch. The rails stop before a drainage channel, with the terminal visible beyond it. Szőke said the final connection would need a bridge section, signalling equipment and safety tests before passenger trains could enter.
The authority’s public completion certificate, dated 19 February, records the branch and terminal as ready for service. It lists payments totalling UAH 1.18 billion, including UAH 146 million for track and signalling work. The procurement register shows the original contractor was due to finish by the end of 2025; a later extension moved the deadline to August without changing the stated completion status.
Transport Minister Andriy Lokan called the opening a “useful first step” and said the coach transfer was a temporary arrangement. “A delayed connection is frustrating, but the terminal gives the region a working gateway and a clear route to finish the last section,” he said at the event. His ministry has not explained why the completion certificate was issued months before the track was connected.
Promises meet the timetable
Tina I. Vinković, a spokeswoman for the fictional Bukovyna Rail Link Authority, said the coaches were “a contingency for the first-day service” and that a revised rail opening date would be announced after technical checks. She did not answer whether the authority had tested a train on the new branch or why its timetable listed the terminal as an operating stop.
The promised service was presented as a boost for travellers heading to Suceava, across the Romanian border, and for a region that has relied on older rail connections. Instead, passengers arriving for the launch were directed to the buses. Inga-Britt Åström, who travelled from Chernivtsi with her mother, said staff first told them to wait on the platform, then ushered them outside.
“They had a ribbon, cameras and a timetable, but no train could bring us to the place they were opening,” Åström said. Szőke said the unfinished section was visible from the ceremony site and could not be mistaken for minor finishing work. The regional transport committee is due to hold a public hearing on 9 October, while the authority says it expects to publish a new opening schedule after the inspection.
