Figures showing the market share owned by railway transport on the international market may not be very favourable for the supporters of this mode of transport. The aggressive commercial policies of road and air transport operators and suppliers have pushed railway transport at the back of the list. And yet, things seem to be changing for the best on the Euro-Asian platform.
The cooperation agreements signed in the 1980s and until now overlap with the policies developed for strengthening the technical and administrative cooperation on the railways, so that the continental railway transport routes could be built from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Starting with the 1990s, the European Union began the construction of the European Transport Network, which is beginning to interconnect with the networks of the countries that exit into the Arctic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, due to the international projects developed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
All these (soft and hard) infrastructure projects, together with the pilot projects developed by the new railway operators which test the strengths and weaknesses of the new network, have led to the creation of a new reality: railway freight transport over large areas. Even though Berlin is not yet connected to Beijing, in 7 to 10 days, normally, the moment in which freight trains will run between these two areas is near. The same for the routes in the south of the Black Sea.
However, things will definitely change. The old railway structure of the national networks will disappear in order to become integrated into a new Euro-Asian structure. The railway infrastructure will ensure continuity between various countries, so that railway operators can transfer their activities in the large areas dominated by the migration of the production spaces to the detriment of the consumption spaces. The railway has been the main supporter of the boom generated by the industrial revolution. But now it has to learn from the lessons given by the road, air and maritime globalisation in order to return to the head of the list. Because railway transport is coming back…
by Ştefan Roşeanu
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