EURO 2012 football tournament co-hosts Ukraine have unveiled a new network of high-speed trains to help fans and commuters travel faster between four cities where matches will be played.
Passengers boarding the train in the city of Kharkiv commented on the improvements the new Hyundai Rotem trains, bought at a cost of 307m USD, and Skoda double deck CityElefants for 40m EUR, will bring to Ukraine.
However well the host nation fares at football, its future in rail travel now looks set to change, with thousands of kilometers of track being upgraded, and night trains being slowly phased out. Until the new trains were brought in, Ukrainian rail transport was driven by Soviet locomotives at least 45 years old.
But while the new age of high speed rail means fast travel, some may miss the romance and economy of long night journeys across Ukraine by train.
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