In southern Moldova, a railway line is lined along with the border of Ukraine, entering its territory in the Moldovan town of Etulia and leaving it shortly after town Reni to return to Moldova in the town Giurgiulesti. This specific situation was slowing down trains that were waiting up to three days to pass through border control despite only transiting through a short part of land in Ukraine. According to a new agreement, transit trains will now move without stopping and carrying out border, customs and other official control measures at Reni station.
From Giurgiulesti, which is also a river port, the line splits, and one branch directly enters Romania, allowing Ukrainian trains with grain to move further to the Romanian port of Galati (3.5 km away) on the river Danube for exports via the Danube river delta and the Black Sea. The Romanian line was reopened for this purpose in 2022 after 22 years of inactivity.
After Russia terminated the Black Sea Grain Initiative, European railways are again under pressure to handle as much grain as possible from this year’s harvesting season from one of the leading global grain producers – Ukraine.
