Haivoron is a railway station in the town of Haivoron in the Kirovohrad Oblast of Holovanivsk Raion, Ukraine. It is an intermediate station of the Shevchenko Directorate of the Odessa Railway, a railway junction for lines Zyatkovtsi–Haivoron and Haivoron–Holovanivsk.
History
The station was opened in 1899, when the railway traffic on the railways Haivoron–Ziatkivtsi and Rudnytsia–Haivoron–Pidhorodna was opened. The name of the station has not changed since its opening. The station's distinctive feature is that both narrow (750 mm) and wide (1524 mm) gauges are used at the station. There is a depot at the station that serves the rolling stock of the narrow-gauge railroad.
Such a situation has been in place from the 1970 to 1980s when firstly the line Gayvoron — Ziatkivtsi was converted to broad gauge, and later, in the 1980s, attempts were made to fully convert the line Gayvoron—Pidgorodna to broad gauge. The project was only partially realized: from Pidhorodna to Holovanivsk it was converted to broad gauge, from Gayvoron to Tauzhnya both broad and narrow tracks run parallel. From Tauzhnya to Holovanivsk only narrow tracks exist. “Ukrzaliznytsia” doesn't plan to complete the work in the near future due to “high costs and complex geological conditions”.
On December 30, 2018, the last passenger train departed from Gayvoron to Holovanivsk. This significant event wasn't covered by the media, and there was no notice on the official "Ukrzaliznytsia" website either. However, passenger service on a 52 km segment was discontinued. Since January 2019, the train Gayvoron—Holovanivsk, which consisted of a single carriage, was almost empty and was eventually canceled due to low passenger flow.
On May 22–23, 2021, the GOODoK FEST tourist festival was held to draw attention to the problems of the inactive narrow-gauge railway and to restore traffic on it, with the participation of MPs, representatives of the Kirovohrad Regional Council, heads of territorial communities, local authorities and enthusiasts. During the festival, a conference was held on the tourism potential of the Gayvoronskaya narrow-gauge railway, its problems and prospects. The festival organizers noted that the Haivorona narrow-gauge railway is not only one of the most interesting tourist attractions in the area, but also an important transportation artery for residents of the surrounding villages. Therefore, the main task of the festival was to draw attention to the termination of the narrow-gauge railway and the narrow-gauge passenger train, the so-called "Cuckoo", which ran on the route Hai Voron — Rudnytsia — Hai Voron.
On June 15, 2022 the repair of the second part of the platform on the 750 mm gauge side began at Gayvoron station. As of June 2022, the narrow-gauge railway operates on the Haivoron–Rudnytsia section, which is used by suburban trains – one pair daily and two pairs of trains on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. In the future, there are plans to launch train service to Holovanivsk station. However, this requires repairing several tens of kilometers of track.
On July 14, 2022 the overhaul of the passenger boarding platform at Haivoron station was completed – it is, without exaggeration, the most modern platform at the station among all narrow-gauge railways in Ukraine.
From October 14, 2021, to July 2022, after the resumption of train traffic, the Haivoronska narrow-gauge railway carried 10,000 passengers. The narrow-gauge railway has returned to normal operation – people still commute to work and school in the morning, return home in the evening, and go to the market three times a week to shop and buy food.
On March 16, 2022, an attempt was made to stop suburban narrow-gauge trains on the route Haivoron–Bershad–Rudnytsia, but the decision to stop narrow-gauge traffic was later canceled.
In August 2022 a daytime train was resumed in test mode, which currently runs three times a week, on a daily basis, to study passenger traffic.