The provisions of the European Agreement on Important International Combined Transport Lines and Related Installations (AGTC)1 define the main railway lines of international importance for combined transport in Europe. For transport in the West-East-West latitudinal layout, this agreement indicates, among others, the following lines of the European railway network:
– C-E 10 Oostende (Belgium) – Bruxelles – Aachen – Dortmund – Osnabrűck – Bremen – Hamburg
– Lűbeck – Hanko – Helsinki – Vainikkala – St. Petersburg – Moscow
Poznań – Warsaw / Skierniewice – Łuków – Brest – Minsk – Moscow
– C-E 20 Oostende (Belgium) – Bruxelles – Aachen – Dortmund – Helmstedt – Berlin / Seddin – Poznań – Warsaw / Skierniewice – Łuków – Brest – Minsk – Moscow
– C-E 30 Dresden (Germany) – Zgorzelec – Wrocław – Katowice – Kraków – Medyka – Lvov –
– C-E 30 Dresden (Germany) – Zgorzelec – Wrocław – Katowice – Kraków – Medyka – Lvov –
Kiev – Moscow
– C-E 40 Le Havre (France) – Paris – Metz – Forbach – Saarbrűcken – Mannheim – Frankfurt
Main – Geműnden – Schirnding – Plzeň – Praha – Ostrava – Žilina – Košice – Čierna n. Tisou –
Lvov.
Mainly these trunk lines can be used for Eurasian transport. It should be noted that the C-E 10 line on the Lűbeck (Germany) – Hanko (Finland) section runs across the Baltic Sea and container cargo transport is carried out by rail ferries.
Furthermore, a significant amount of containerized goods is transported between the ports of Bremerhaven – Kaiserhafen and Hamburg – Waltershof and Hamburg Sűd by container ships to the ports of Hamina, Hanko, Helsinki and Turku (Finland), from where they are transported by rail on the C-E 10 line through the Vainikkala border station to Russia and further along the Trans-Siberian Railway (TRANSSIB) to the ports of the Far East, including the port of Vostochny, and in the opposite direction. Maritime connections across the Baltic, including the C-E 10 line with a section of the C-E 20 line and the further direction of cargo flows to the Trans-Siberian Railway, are presented in the attached schematic map – Fig. 1.
As a result of the unstable socio-political situation in Poland, a new broad-gauge railway ferry connection across the Baltic from the port of Mukran (former GDR) to Klaipeda (former USSR) with a length of 521 km was established in October 1986. The ferries serving this line carry up to 103 broad-gauge wagons.
Of the presented railway trunk lines, only the C-E 20 and C-E 30 lines run through Poland, constituting the infrastructure of the II and III Pan-European transport corridors, connecting in Russia with the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2004.