Transportation is one of the main branches of the economy, especially railway freight transport. Over the past years, the strategies of the decision-making forums, either European or international, have tried to persuade member states to show more interest in the shift of goods from roads to railways, but also in railway infrastructure investments or in the development of related railway services to stimulate customers to choose railway transport as freight transport mode.
The development of freight terminals dedicated to intermodal transport increase the interest of customers in this railway freight transport mode and intensifies its modal share. The geographical position is also an advantage.
The Republic of Moldova is one of the countries which turn into account its geographical position on the Asian platform and tries to intensify the freight transport segment on railways by developing a terminal for the transshipment and transfusion of freight in Chisinau, thus becoming a gate to Europe for the transit of freight coming from East. “One of the projects that we plan to develop is the connection of Chisinau to the city of Iasi through a standard gauge infrastructure of 1435 mm. Transshipment and transfusion alternatives are much more varied in Chisinau than in Ungheni, from the point of view of the existing area. Thus, having a European gauge railway up to Chisinau, we can form a hub to transfer the freight to the CIS countries”, declared Vitalie Struna, the General Manager of Moldovan Railways, in an interview for Railway Pro this April.
The country develops a series of important railway infrastructure projects, first of all for increasing the traffic speed of freight trains crossing our country. The Republic of Moldova is more of a transit country, so they try to increase the speed on Galaţi – Giurgiuleşti – Port of Reni line, as well as on Ungheni – Iaşi – Jijia line.
Moreover, the resumption of freight traffic on the Transnistrian segment (interrupted in 2006) increases the geopolitical importance of the railways, for example, the economic agents in Ukraine could use the Moldovan railways to ship their goods to Romania, the Balkans, maybe even to the eastern part of the EU.
According to the data published by the National Statistics Institute in the Republic of Moldova, in January-March 2012, 705.9 thousand tonnes of freight were shipped, 40.8% less than in the same period of 2011. As regards the structure of goods loaded in wagons in the country’s railway stations, higher shares were registered by grains and bakery products – 29.1% (in January-March 2011 – 59.6%), ferrous metals and scrap iron – 26.8% (in January-March 2011 – 11.3%), construction materials and cement – 13.1% (in January-March 2011 – 5.8%).
The authorities hope that the volume of goods shipped through the Republic of Moldova will increase. This May, CFM (Moldovan Railways) announced that they will cancel the current discriminatory tariffs for freight transport charged by the economic agents which develop import-export activities through the Giurgiuleşti International Port.
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