With the skies and ports closed, Ukraine’s railroads have been crucial to efforts to flee, to return, to keep the country going or to simply reclaim some semblance of normal life.
Pitched as a way to develop the country’s poorest region, the Maya Train is threatened by a ballooning budget and rushed construction over fragile terrain. But Mexico’s president has refused to slow it down.
To help offset inflation, Germany’s government has subsidized cheap train passes this summer. While many feared chaos and overcrowding on an overburdened system, it has been a relatively smooth ride.
Five years after its launch, the railway has become associated with debt, dysfunction and criminal inquiries, and it is now a lightning rod in Tuesday’s election.