PROPOSALS to study the feasibility of a 1 520?mm gauge line to Bratislava were agreed last month by Slovakian Transport Minister Lubom?r Vazny and Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin, during a state visit to Moscow by Slovakian President Robert Fico.It is not clear whether the line would be a 300?km extension of the existing 1 520?mm gauge route that runs for about 100?km from the Ukrainian border near Uzhorod to Hasniska near Kosice, or a completely new alignment from another border crossing. Completion is envisaged by 2014, after which an extension to Wien is in prospect.At the moment US Steel Kosice runs its own iron ore and coal trains to Hasniska, but general merchandise handled by ZSSK Cargo is transhipped between broad gauge and standard gauge wagons at two locations: Cierna nad Tisou and Matovce. Criticising the k3bn proposal in Pre?ov on May 14, ?tefan Kuzma of the Slovak Democratic & Christian Union warned that around 1 400 jobs would be at stake if these facilities were to close.n

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