Railway Border Under Pressure: Why Chełm and Przemyśl Cannot Handle Passenger Flows from Ukraine
Every year, more than 20 million people cross the Ukrainian–Polish border, and a significant share of this flow travels by rail. The stations in Chełm and Przemyśl have become key transit hubs for Ukrainians continuing deeper into Poland and the EU. Since the start of the full-scale war, this load has increased dramatically, while the infrastructure has remained largely unchanged. This is where the gap has emerged between the reality of mass migration and the actual capacity of border and railway facilities.
The problem cannot be reduced to isolated incidents or winter frosts. Passenger testimonies show that inconveniences persist throughout the year, becoming physically unbearable in cold weather. People are forced to wait for connections for hours outdoors on platforms without proper waiting halls, without toilets, without access to water or seating. Any train delay automatically turns into a humanitarian issue.
Railway transfers have become a “bottleneck” at the border. Unlike road checkpoints, border control, transfers, and waiting are concentrated in a single space. Once passengers pass customs and passport control, they are effectively “locked” onto the platform. Returning to the station building is not possible, and there are no alternatives for waiting. In summer this means heat and dehydration; in winter cold, snow, and health risks. The situation hits women with children, elderly passengers, and people with large amounts of luggage the hardest. Eyewitness accounts describe infants in strollers, mothers searching for hot water and tea, people huddling together in narrow glass shelters trying to keep warm. This is no longer about comfort or service it is about basic conditions of human dignity.
Temporary solutions ease the pressure but do not solve the problem. The response by railway operators and local authorities “Points of Resilience” set up by Ukrainian Railways in Chełm, tents in Przemyśl, temporary waiting rooms has been necessary and appropriate in a crisis. Heated carriages with children’s areas, charging points, and hot tea genuinely help people endure long waits. However, all these measures share one key limitation: they do not increase capacity and do not change the underlying organization of passenger flows. Official reconstruction plans do exist. In Chełm, station redevelopment is underway, with promises of a modern, accessible facility. In Przemyśl, shelters in the control area and infrastructure upgrades are planned. Yet the pace of implementation lags far behind the real growth in passenger traffic. Bureaucratic procedures, tenders, documentation approvals, and critically reduced funding due to the cancellation of part of international assistance are slowing progress.
The border has become not only an infrastructure issue, but a political one. For nearly two million Ukrainians in Poland refugees and labor migrants the railway border is a regular part of daily life. How waiting, control, and assistance are organized shapes perceptions of how Ukrainians are treated overall. This is why diplomatic efforts around joint border control points, increased staffing, and better coordination between countries matter just as much as concrete and steel in new stations. The core issue is one of scale mismatch. Infrastructure designed for peacetime is being forced to serve wartime and post-war passenger volumes. Without a systemic rethink of transfer logistics, the creation of proper waiting areas, and accelerated reconstruction, the railway border will continue to be one of the most painful points for Ukrainians traveling abroad or returning home.
The situation in Chełm and Przemyśl shows that the issue of border crossings has long moved beyond transport alone. It is a matter of humanitarian responsibility, infrastructure capacity, and respect for millions of people for whom the railway platform has become part of everyday reality. Without accelerated decisions and long-term investment, temporary tents and heated carriages will remain symbols not of resilience, but of chronic system overload.
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