When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ukraine on August 23, 2024, he spent a 10-hour journey on a “Rail Force One” overnight train. This specially designed train had previously carried United States President Joe Biden from Poland to Kyiv in February 2023.
Here’s what you should know about “Rail Force One.”
The wood-panelled cabins of “Rail Force One” consist of a living room for meetings, two bedrooms, a kitchen and two bathrooms. The interiors are air-conditioned and equipped with modern electronic devices. The wagon was built on special SUW 2000 trolleys which have a variable wheelbase that allows for driving on tracks of different widths.
Pictures from trips taken by foreign dignitaries show cream and blue curtains, leather sofas, king-size beds, wall-mounted flatscreen TVs and other modern amenities on the train. The 10-hour, 700-odd-km journey begins at Przemyśl Główny station in Poland, located around 400km southeast of Warsaw—which is close to the country’s border with Ukraine—and ends at Kyiv.
“Rail Force One” is painted blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine’s flag. These luxury carriages were initially built in 2014 to transport tourists visiting Crimea and the Black Sea. However, following Russia's annexation of the peninsula, they were repurposed to safely transport world leaders and VIPs through the war-torn country. Today, the wider Ukrainian railway network plays an important role in the war effort, helping to transport aid across the country.
In fact, Ukraine's rail network is one of the largest in the world, spanning almost 25,000km. Ukrzaliznytsia, the state-owned railway company, is the sixth-largest railway passenger transporter in the world and ranked seventh for freight. Although cross-border links to Russia have been destroyed, Ukrzaliznytsia still connects with neighbouring countries like Moldova, Poland and Romania.
The rail network has been popular for ages, with domestic travellers often favouring trains over planes. In 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 28.9 million tons of grain, mostly for export, and nearly 60 million tons of goods. The company also transported 17.1 million passengers via long-distance trains, predominantly made up of sleeper services.
Besides Biden, over 200 foreign diplomatic missions have arrived in Ukraine by train so far. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have all taken the train to Kyiv. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister for strategic industries, has often used the hashtag #IronDiplomacy to refer to these world leaders’ train trips. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly uses the railway network for diplomatic missions abroad.
(With inputs from multiple news sources)