Glorious Kazakh Coal come to Europa - The Vojany Thermal Power Plant, operating in Eastern Slovakia, purchases Kazakh coal for electricity generation, with a distance of just under 4,500 kilometers. The Ukrainian-Russian border has been closed due to the war, and the new route avoids Russia. The longer transport distance and multiple transfers provide a clear explanation for the rising prices of energy carriers. The coal-laden wagons can still be transferred by rail ferry across the Caspian Sea, but in Georgia, the coal is transferred to regular ships, and in Bulgaria, to standard-gauge freight cars, before finally arriving on the standard-gauge tracks in Matovce from Hungary. So why do we still see broad-gauge wagons in the picture? Here’s the biggest joke: for the last few kilometers, the coal has to be reloaded into broad-gauge wagons because the unloading equipment at the power plant was built for broad-gauge tracks. (Vojany / Slovakia, 20 December 2022, 13:48)