\n Editor\u2019s Note: <\/b>Sign up for Unlocking the World,<\/a> CNN Travel\u2019s weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.\n<\/p>\n \n \n It was \u201cRail Force One<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the overnight train that took US President Biden on a diplomatic odyssey from Przemy\u015bl G\u0142\u00f3wny in Poland to Kyiv for his historic visit to Ukraine, just before the first anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of the country.\n <\/p>\n \n The 10-hour overnight journey was a top secret, high security challenge for Ukrzaliznytsia, or Ukrainian Railways \u2013 the state-owned operator of Ukraine\u2019s rail network. But it was hardly their first.\n <\/p>\n \n With commercial air links into Ukraine canceled, and the skies too dangerous to fly politicians in and out of the country, Ukraine\u2019s rail network has become the country\u2019s diplomatic highway. Over 200 foreign diplomatic missions have arrived in the country by train so far.\n <\/p>\n \n World leaders including Canada\u2019s Justin Trudeau, the UK\u2019s Rishi Sunak, France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron and Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni have all taken the train to Kyiv. In fact, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is the only G7 leader yet to visit the country by train.\n <\/p>\n \n Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a regular user of the railway network on his diplomatic missions abroad.\n <\/p>\n \n But there\u2019s more to the railways than \u201cRail Force One,\u201d as Biden\u2019s train was dubbed.\n <\/p>\n \n The US president\u2019s high profile journey has shone a spotlight on Ukraine\u2019s vast rail network which, at nearly 15,000 miles, is the 12th largest in the world.\n <\/p>\n Train transporting Biden in Ukraine now dubbed ‘Rail Force One’<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n Ukrzaliznytsia is the sixth largest rail passenger transporter in the world, and seventh for freight.\n <\/p>\n \n First constructed in pre-Soviet times, its network is predominantly a broad gauge railway \u2013 different to the standard gauge, which most of Europe uses.\n <\/p>\n \n And while Ukraine forces have destroyed the cross-border links to Russia, the rail network still connects with other countries \u2013 although the differing gauges mean trains can\u2019t generally cross the border. To deal with this, over the past year they have rebuilt sections of previously defunct lines to neighboring countries including Moldova, Poland and Romania. Infrastructure has been repaired at 11 border crossings.\n <\/p>\n \n This isn\u2019t just about making passenger journeys easier. It\u2019s crucial for freight \u2013 and for much of the world, which relies on Ukrainian produce, including grain. In 2022, 28.9 million tons of grain were transported via the railways, most of which was exported. In total, just under 60 million tons of goods were exported from Ukraine, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.\n <\/p>\n \n And in total, the company transported 17.1 million passengers via long-distance trains during 2022. These are predominantly sleeper services.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBefore the war, we had planes, cars, buses and trains,\u201d Ukrzaliznytsia\u2019s CEO Alexander Kamyshin told CNN Travel. \u201cNow we\u2019ve got trains and cars, no airplanes. And we\u2019re a large country. So to get from Kyiv to west, south or east Ukraine, sleeper trains are the best way to do it. You go to the train in the late evening, travel the whole night, and in the morning you are in the city you need to be. So you don\u2019t waste time.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt was comfortable before the war, and now it\u2019s comfortable and safe. Trains are very important.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Of course, most of the pictures we have seen in the past year of Ukrainian Railways are ones of refugees. Ukrzaliznytsia says it helped four million to safety in 2022, a quarter of whom were children.\n <\/p>\n \n Some trains were also reconfigured as medical facilities. Around 2,500 civilians were evacuated for medical treatment via rail last year. The network also transported nearly 336,000 tons of humanitarian aid.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s an immense responsibility for Kamyshin, who started with the company just six months before Russia invaded. \u201cI joined with the problem to develop the company, green-light new projects, renew the fleet and it was all about building and construction, and procuring new stuff. But a year ago we had to change to war time, and war rails,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n \n Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Biden\u2019s journey to Ukraine was the light that it shed on just how smoothly Ukrzaliznytsia operates.\n <\/p>\n \n Kamyshin apologized in a tweet<\/a> that, because of Biden\u2019s complex journey, \u201conly 90% of our trains ran on time yesterday.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That caused hollow laughter in Biden\u2019s America, where Amtrak is infamous for its late-running passenger trains.\n <\/p>\n \n Amtrak\u2019s latest on-time performance figures<\/a>, looking at June 2022, show that on average, just over 22% of trains ran on time across the US. Some areas have reversed Ukraine\u2019s statistics, with more than 90% of trains arriving late.\n <\/p>\n \n In the UK \u2013 which has sent two prime ministers to Ukraine by train \u2013 just 67.7% of trains run on time, according to the latest data<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s no surprise to Ukrainians. The train services have always been excellent, says Kyiv resident Alla Penalba.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019ve always taken the train when traveling around Ukraine,\u201d she says. She\u2019s a particular fan of sleeper services. \u201cIt\u2019s convenient \u2013 you board in the evening and in the morning you\u2019re on the opposite of the country. Even before 2014 [when Russia invaded Crimea] the journey to Crimea from Kyiv was more convenient by train. It took 20 hours, but you sat down, then went to sleep \u2013 it was pretty comfy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Penalba says that because low-cost airlines entered Ukraine later than in the rest of Europe, the country retained its network of night trains, with limited domestic flights.\n <\/p>\n \n Even when the budget airlines did arrive \u2013 she reckons that from 2016 there were more viable options to fly cross-country \u2013 she didn\u2019t bite.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI could fly to Odesa from Kyiv but still I\u2019d think, OK, I need to go to the airport two hours in advance, if you live on the opposite side of Kyiv it can take an hour to get there \u2013 so that\u2019s three hours plus the flight. Ultimately it\u2019s more convenient to take the train at 11 p.m., sleep, and arrive at 7 a.m.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Penalba left Kyiv with her family on the second day of the 2022 invasion, driving to France, where her husband is from. But she returned alone in the summer to take care of personal business, and to see if it felt safe to move back.\n <\/p>\n \n On her way into Ukraine, she took a flight to Poland and then a bus to Kyiv: \u201cA terrible experience, I hate long bus journeys.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n On the way back, she took the overnight train to Poland: \u201cIt was the best experience out of two days of travel.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n When the family moved back to Kyiv, in August 2022, they again took the train from Poland, getting a second class, four-berth compartment for her, her husband and their two kids. Their only stress? The Polish train was delayed by three hours. Unlike the Ukrainian one.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI was amazed and pretty proud,\u201d says Penalba.\n <\/p>\n \n Visitors to the country are equally amazed \u2013 starting with Penalba\u2019s husband, who moved from France in 2015.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe\u2019s always saying that Ukrainian trains are pretty great compared to the ones in France,\u201d she says. \u201cHe didn\u2019t use trains there because they were too expensive. Here they are accessible for everyone.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A cross-border train to Poland costs around 50 euros (about $53) for a lie-flat bed in a four-person, second class berth, and Penalba says that domestic routes are even cheaper \u2013 around 15-30 euros. \u201cFirst class would be around 40 euros,\u201d she says.\n <\/p>\n \n Koen Berghuis, editor-in-chief of train specialist travel website, Paliparan<\/a>, is another fan. Based in Romania, the Dutch national takes around half a dozen long distance or overnight trains per month, and before the war, traveled to Ukraine over 10 times.\n <\/p>\n \n For him, if you\u2019re comparing punctuality, Ukraine\u2019s railway system is \u201cbetter than Germany\u2019s.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey\u2019re doing a remarkable job \u2013 even now, trains are running more or less on time,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n \n Astonishingly, Penalba reckons the system has got \u201cmore efficient\u201d since the Russian invasion.\n <\/p>\n \n In August 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia launched an app, and started taking online bookings. \u201cI can buy tickets in a few clicks now,\u201d she says.\n <\/p>\n \n Kamyshin says that the only real change to the service in the past year is that trains run at slightly reduced speeds now. \u201cIt\u2019s not much slower, but we slowed them down deliberately to make it safer in case of something [happening].\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Of course, politicians don\u2019t travel in third class. Kamyshin won\u2019t reveal details of the service they do get, but he says that \u201cguests of iron diplomacy,\u201d as he calls them, \u201cusually spend more time on the train than in the city.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s why the way we treat them is really important, he says.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But it\u2019s not just about treating them right. The trains also convey \u201cthe messages that we would like to send them,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe are delicate and we\u2019ll always treat all of our guests properly, but these things help them understand what we expect from them \u2013 like iris flowers or leopard print clothes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A vase of irises was put in the train for the visit of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country agreed to supply an air defense system called Iris-T. For another politician, staff wore leopard print accessories, in a nod to the Leopard-2 tanks Ukraine was requesting from the country in question. Kamyshin won\u2019t say who that was, but Poland and Germany have also donated Leopard-2 tanks, with Germany pledging more on the first anniversary of the invasion.\n <\/p>\n \n Rail travel in Europe has always been popular, of course, and the climate crisis is making it increasingly so. Berghuis thinks that Ukraine can teach other rail networks a thing or two.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe main difference to other European countries is the sheer scale of Ukraine as a country,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n \n At the start of last year, he took the Rakhiv-Mariupol sleeper train \u2013 Ukraine\u2019s longest passenger train route before Russia\u2019s invasion. At 1,806 kilometers, or 1,118 miles, it took just under 29 hours, crossing 12 \u201coblasts\u201d (regions).\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt was basically the same as Amsterdam to Lisbon or Athens, or New York to Kansas City,\u201d he says. Except passengers on those type of routes would, of course, usually fly.\n <\/p>\n \n Ukraine\u2019s size means that its \u201chuge\u201d rail network has \u201calways been a lifeline to Ukrainians \u2013 it\u2019s a very important piece of infrastructure,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n
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