Eurasian freight transport is carried out via the following transport routes:
– maritime, from Western European countries to Finland (Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka) and then by rail along Transport Corridor IX through the Vainikkala / Buslovskaya border crossing to the Russian Federation and the Trans-Siberian Railway towards Asian countries
– maritime, by ferry from Germany to Lithuania and by rail to the Russian Federation, and then along the Trans-Siberian Railway towards Asian countries
– Transport Corridor II: Berlin – Warsaw – Minsk – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod and then along the Trans-Siberian Railway towards Asian countries
– Transport Corridor III: Berlin / Dresden – Wroclaw – Krakow – Kyiv
– two routes from Southern European countries: the sea-rail TRACECA corridor through the Caucasus and the southern Trans-Asian railway line through Iran to various countries in Asia
– Transport Corridor V: Venice / Koper / Rijeka / Ploce – Budapest – Kyiv.
Transport Corridors III and V via Kyiv – Tashkent lead along the central Eurasian railway line towards China. The current utilization of these corridors varies, and is most often far from the potential capacity of their railway lines.
Recently, a conference was held in Vladivostok to present further opportunities for the development of Eurasian container transport. The meeting was attended by representatives of, among others, the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation, the UN ESCAP Commission, the Korean State Railway and the Republic of Korea, the OSJD organization, the UIC Union, and the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation.
In recent years, international freight transport on Russian Railways (RZD) has increased significantly, reaching 305 million tons in 2001. This accounts for 26% of the total volume of transport by RZD. Meanwhile, the level of rail transport
in the Berlin – Warsaw – Minsk – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod transport corridor in both directions in 2001 totaled 8.5 million tons of cargo, including 5.0 million tons of export transport, 2.4 million tons of import transport, and 1.1 million tons of transit transport.
Most of these shipments were carried out by fast trains running on the Germany – Poland – Belarus – Russia route: the “Eastern Wind” container train and the “Russia Express” general freight train, as well as the “Europe Express” train in the opposite direction. These trains were organized with the participation of German (DB Cargo), Polish (PKP Cargo), Belarusian (BC), and Russian (RZD) railways. In 2001, approximately 5,000 containers were transported by these trains in the West-East direction, 40% of which were intended for recipients at Russian railway stations. The remaining cargo was transported further, mainly towards Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2003.