On 23 June, in Brussels, the European Union launched the “Connectivity Agenda Platform” — a framework meant to bind Europe more closely to Central Asia through the transport corridors that cross the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus. The Republic of Moldova was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bolea, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development. And out of that meeting, seemingly far removed from a district on the Prut, came a step that concerns Ungheni directly.
At the end of the meeting, the Republic of Moldova, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank recorded the launch of the preparation phase for the feasibility study of an entirely new electrified railway with European gauge on the Ungheni–Chișinău route. In other words: nothing is being built yet, but the technical work from which a concrete project will later emerge has officially begun.
What was actually signed — and what wasn’t
A clarification is in order here, because two different things happened in Brussels, easily confused. In the road sector, Moldova, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed a Declaration of Intent on modernising road corridors and reforming the sector. In the rail sector — the one that interests us — the partner is not the EBRD but the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the step is not a signature on a contract but the recording of the start of preparing the feasibility study, with possible advisory support through the EU’s EPIC instrument. The distinction is not petty bureaucracy: it separates a firm promise from a project that is only entering the design stage.
A line that starts at Ungheni
What truly matters for the town is the kind of line being studied. Today, Moldova’s entire internal rail network is built on Russian gauge, 1,520 millimetres wide — the Soviet legacy. The line being studied now would be on European gauge, 1,435 millimetres: the same width as in Romania and the rest of the European Union. In practice, that means rails on which a European train can enter without having its axles changed at the border — the operation that, at Ungheni, still takes hours for each carriage today.
According to Minister Bolea, the feasibility study should be ready this year and construction could start in 2027, with trains designed for a minimum speed of 140 km/h. He also announced that, in a later stage, the line would be extended from Chișinău onward, as far as the “Eugen Doga” International Airport. These are, for now, stated timeline targets — they depend on what the study shows.
We are the most interested party in seeing the Republic of Moldova put back on the map of international economic routes. Vladimir Bolea, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development
Two halves looking for each other
The news from Brussels makes full sense only alongside that of last week. Then, the government in Bucharest was approving the electrification of the line from Iași to the border — the Romanian half of a corridor that enters Moldova precisely through Ungheni, over the “Eiffel” bridge across the Prut. We wrote then that the European link further on, towards Chișinău, was “for now only at the study stage”. That very study is now starting.
The two pieces add up, on paper, to a single thread: from Iași towards Ungheni — electrification approved, with European funding and works targeted for 2028; from Ungheni towards Chișinău — a new line, with European gauge, only just entering the study stage. If both reach the finish, Ungheni stops being merely the place where trains “change their wheels” and becomes the gateway of a continuous European corridor, electrified, from the border to the capital.
What the promise rests on
The enthusiasm, though, calls for measure. The Republic of Moldova has not a single kilometre of electrified railway today, and rail freight has halved in a decade, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Against that backdrop, a project that is only preparing its feasibility study carries a real risk of staying on paper for years — the idea of a European Iași–Ungheni–Chișinău line has circulated in official statements since at least 2022.
Nor are critical voices absent. Oleg Tofilat, former director of Moldovan Railways, points out that studies of this kind are not put to public debate and that the line should have been conceived more ambitiously — extended, for instance, as far as Berești station, near Ungheni. And one more necessary note, so expectations are not inflated: the “up to 2 billion euro” floated in Brussels is not for the Ungheni–Chișinău segment, but for investment across the whole Black Sea and Caucasus region. For the line from Ungheni, the real figure — how much it costs and how long it takes — is yet to come out of the study that has just begun.
The gateway stays the gateway
Beyond the caveats, the direction says something about the town’s role. Every time the talk turns to how Moldova links up with the European Union by rail, the road runs through Ungheni — next to the future road bridge, next to the customs post under construction, next to the TEN-T transport corridor. The country’s first European-gauge railway would not merely pass through Ungheni: it would begin here. For a town that has always defined itself as a crossing point, it is one more confirmation that it remains the gateway — this time, an electrified one, on European gauge.
The distinction between the two acts signed in Brussels — the Declaration of Intent on roads (with the EBRD) and the recording of the start of the rail study (with the European Investment Bank and the EPIC instrument) — comes from the official statement of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, carried by the state agency MOLDPRES. The timeline (study in 2026, construction in 2027), the 140 km/h speed and the extension to the airport are statements by Minister Vladimir Bolea to public broadcasting. The clarification about the 2 billion euro belongs to the statement of the European External Action Service. The former railway director’s critical stance and the rail-transport data come from a Radio Free Europe Moldova report and from the National Bureau of Statistics. The cost and exact length of the Ungheni–Chișinău segment were not public at the time of writing — they will come out of the feasibility study.