Tunnel of Love, Klevan
Тунель кохання
Interesting facts
- The whole branch line is about 6.4 km long, and roughly 4.9 km of it runs through the forest where the green arch forms.
- The line links Klevan station with a fibreboard factory at Orzhiv, a village that also has its own station on the same Rivne–Kovel main line.
- The Japanese romance Klevan: Tunnel of Love by director Akiyoshi Imazaki had its world premiere at the Hanoi International Film Festival in November 2014.
- The Chinese imitation of the tunnel opened on 20 May 2017 near the city of Hefei.
- A Ukrainian short film, Tunnel (2014), was shot here and was shown in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015.
- Some newlywed couples plant flowers beside the track as a token of their feelings for each other.
Why it is worth it
Near the small town of Klevan in western Ukraine, a single-track industrial railway runs through a forest, and for several kilometres the trees close over it in an almost perfect arch. The result is the Tunnel of Love: a green corridor with a rail line down the middle, walls and roof made of leaves, and a vanishing point that seems to go on forever. In late spring and summer it is a luminous tube of green; in autumn it turns gold; in winter the bare branches draw a lattice against the snow.
The shape is not a freak of nature but a by-product of work. The line branches off the main railway at Klevan station and leads to a woodworking factory at Orzhiv, and for decades a small diesel shunter hauling timber wagons has brushed back every branch that grew into its path. What the train did not touch kept growing, and the forest trimmed itself to the loading gauge of the wagons. The line is only a few kilometres long, and estimates of the tunnel itself vary from about 3 to nearly 5 km depending on where one draws its ends. Trains still run on it a few times a day, and the tunnel is protected as a botanical natural monument of local importance.
The romance came later, and it is part of the place's charm. Couples walk the sleepers, newlyweds come for photographs, and local lore says that a pair who kiss as the train passes and make a single wish together will see it come true. The tunnel has inspired films as well: a Japanese romantic drama, "Klevan: Tunnel of Love", premiered in 2014, and in 2017 a copy of the idea opened in a park in China. None of it quite matches the original, where the hush of the forest and the slightly unreal regularity of the arch make an ordinary freight branch feel like a dream.
Getting there
The tunnel starts a short walk from Klevan railway station, which is on the line between Rivne and Kovel; the city of Rivne is about 20 km away by road. The nearest international airport in a straight line is Brest (BQT) across the border in Belarus, about 210 km away. Remember that the track is a working railway: step aside well before a train comes through.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Tunnel of Love is a section of industrial railway located near Klevan, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, that links it with Orzhiv. It is a railway surrounded by green arches and is three to five kilometers in length. It is known for being a favorite place for couples to take walks since trains pass only three times a day.
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