Freight transport is more efficient on railways

02-19-2010 13:06

Economic integration in the Wider Black Sea Area represents the extension and intensification of the connections linking national economies. Trade, finance, passenger transport infrastructure, but especially freight infrastructures or a communication infrastructure are mechanisms of economic integration but this is not a simple or safe process. Political and cultural connections represent the foundation of an economic alliance. Geography can be a hindrance in the path of integration but technology can overcome these obstacles. The “technology” of establishing railway transport corridors in the Area is imperative.

Trade between Europe and Central Asia affects transport 

Commercial exchange tendencies between Europe and Asia, as well as their consequences on transport, clearly show that commercial exchanges between the two continents have strongly intensified over the past years, as a result of emergent economies in Russia and the countries in Central Asia. This generated a wider geographic spread of commercial flows, a very important phenomenon in defining the main routes for international trade between Asia and Europe, not only between commercial exchanges between any extremity of the two continents, but also for the commercial exchanges between the major centres inside the Eurasian platform.
The observed growth in trade between Eastern Europe and the countries in Central Asia has manifested equally in energy products (natural gases and oil) which play a key role in exports by members of the Community of Independent States, raw materials and intermediate products (cement, steel, timber) boosted by major construction programmes, manufactured products and assembly parts (traffic associated with the delocalisation of assembly plants). It has produced strong, highly diversified and in many cases sophisticated demand for international transport, with heavy logistical constraints, because of the lack of freight transport corridors, the International Transport Forum informs.

Tendencies

Due to freight transport market liberalisation and the establishment of 6 European corridors which, once they are completely equipped with the ERTMS system, they will be exclusively destined to railway freight transport, as well as the development of the Trans-European Railway Network (TEN-T) which includes on its map the central and east European countries to the Black Sea, railway freight transport in Eastern Europe has automatically and significantly developed over the past years and the traffic flow in the area was directed towards the railways. Of course, here we can mention the constant support of the European Commission which sustains the railways and which supported different investment programmes for the reconstruction and development of the railways in the area, especially in Eastern Europe where the railway network is vast. And the existence of electrified network, equipped with performing signalling and control systems, as well as investments in rolling stock modernisation and procurement have considerably improved freight traffic performance. Of course that almost all railway freight transport operators in the region have been affected and some are still dealing with the negative effects of the recession which began at the end 2008 and developed during 2009 resulting in smaller figures in shipped cargo volumes.

Efficient solutions

If Central and Eastern Europe witnessed a positive tendency in railway freight transport over the past years, we cannot say the same about the Caucasus area and the countries in Central Asia, mostly because of less railway infrastructure investments where the lack of electrification on most lines (except Russia) or partially because the relief in the area makes the establishment of corridors exclusively destined to freight transport difficult. Freight transport in the area developed mostly on its maritime container transport component, which is, unfortunately, more expensive and takes more time.
Overall, an analysis of the current situation of the freight transport between Europe and Asia shows two factors which support the diversification of routes and the opening of new land transport routes between continents, especially railway transport. There are relevant examples to prove this, namely the “Silk Road” reopened on the Trans-Siberian railway line and corridor. For example, While on the Trans-Siberian route, transport between Europe and the Pacific can take 9 to 10 days, potentially, rail services could be provided that would take no more than 20 or so days from China to Europe via central Asia rather than the 6 weeks or more that ship transport would take.
However, recent data in freight transport reveal the fact that this type of transport developed in the Wider Black Sea Area can also bring a very significant reduction of railway transport costs, especially on long distance routes, as well as costs reductions can improve operation conditions (operating longer trains or a better operation of rolling stock and staff).
An efficient solution for reviving railway transport in the Area is intermodal transport which undoubtedly seems to provide one of the most optimistic forecasts for transport corridors between Europe and Asia through railway-maritime transport performance and making the best of these advantages in order to ensure a full distribution of freight on the entire Asian and Central European territory.
For the International Transport Forum (better known as the European Conference of Ministers of Transport - ECMT), which now has a scope of coverage that extends over much of the area stretching from Europe to Asia, this poses a challenge on both land and sea with, on the one hand, continuous rapid growth in traffic on major sea routes and in major ports, to which land access is increasingly problematic and, on the other hand, the revival of the great land routes over long distances opening up new opportunities for all modes of transport, particularly railway transport.
Both Central European, Caucasus and Central Asian countries have known several problems of railway freight transport most of which being the result of the discrepancy that exists between customer requirements and the kind of services provided by the rail mode. Because of the specificities of the railway system, the railways find it very difficult to meet the quality requirements of the transport industry resulting from changes at the level of the goods’ structure and logistics. It is not surprising therefore that it is in international traffic, with its high growth rate, that the railways have the most problems with quality.  Then there is the additional fact that most of the railways dominating the market are state-owned, which until now has meant insufficient support for the basic structural reforms needed on the railways.

The situation improves

However, the statistical data show that the networks crossing continental Asia start gaining shape and interconnect the countries in the central region – in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Iran, with long-haul rail connections and developing new opportunities for railway transport. As for the countries in the Community of Independent States (CSI), these adapt their transport infrastructure with connections from Russia to Central Asia and the countries in the Caucasus, as well as from Kazakhstan and Iran, which holds a central position along the East-Western routes.
Examples talk for themselves. In March 2009, Polzug Intermodal launched its unit train project within the Caucasus Mountains connecting to central Asia.
The container trains are made up of cars of the same type all going to the same destination. With no stopping for assembly and disassembly along the way, the unit trains, or block trains, offer high-volume customers an economical alternative to previous rail freight operations or to truck transport, as well as an alternative to common railway freight transport operations or road transport. Polzug Intermodal runs the block railroad service along the TRACECA route, between the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea. From Baku onward shipment is by feeder across the Caspian Sea to Aktau, Kazakhstan, for rail transport to Central Asia. “The Caucasus and Central Asia are growth markets. Interest in our block train through the Caucasus has been absolutely tremendous,” said Walter Schulze-Freyberg, managing director of Polzug, in a statement.
The route through the Caucasus to Central Asia is rapidly becoming a competitive alternative to the routes from the North Sea ports via Poland/Belarus and Ukraine/Russia, as well as an alternative from the Baltic seaports via Russia.

Elena Ilie - Translated by Alina Vuţulicu

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