Although the worldwide economy is coping with the effects of the crisis and there is a major tendency of reducing investments, especially in transport infrastructure projects, the estimated long-term growth will unavoidably lead to a special attention paid to infrastructure development projects.
On the long-term, the transport sector will have to meet traffic demands by delivering a well-developed and performing infrastructure; the fact that freight transport worldwide will record an 80% growth and passenger transport a 50% growth poses serious challenges to authorities regarding the availability of an infrastructure capable to face high traffic demands and to provide efficient mobility to both freight and passengers.
“Current policies on cutting investments in transport infrastructure projects should pay special attention to traffic positive growth estimates. The traffic is expected to increase by 80% for freight and by 50% for passengers; rail freight transport is expected to increase 8-fold and passengers transport 12-fold, which means unprecedented investment prospects”, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General – UIC, communicated in a video message to the participants in the Railway Days – the Railway Investment Summit in the Wider Black Sea Area. The event was organised on 8-9 October 2013 in Bucharest by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association under the aegis of CER, OTIF and UNIFE.
Investments in the area of transport are estimated at 11 thousand billion dollars, “40% of which can go to rail transport. In order to respond to these new opportunities and increase the sufficiency to contribute to the development of an attractive and competitive rail transport system which best meets of expectations of customers, economy and the society as a whole”.
To encourage investments and provide necessary support to the development of the railway system in the Black Sea countries, especially from the technical, economic and political points of view, UIC and the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation will sign a Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement is seen as “a means of exciting new prospects for the development of transport connections by increasing the efficiency of international rail transport bringing the trade capacity and volumes of outside and internal business to the railways and implementing innovative transport solutions to improve transport efficiency in the Black Sea Region”, said Loubinoux.
Cooperation is necessary for an interoperable railway system in Eurasia
The development of a railway transport capable to meet mobility demands requires investments in creating an interoperable system especially with other different systems. “If rail is to link regions properly together, technical interoperability is essential and no more so than in the Wider Black Sea Region where the European 1435 mm standard gauge meets the 1520 mm broad gauge”, declared in a video message in the opening of the event the European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas.
The countries in the Black Sea Area are the platform connecting important economic areas and they are a hub and transit point between Europe and Asia, the Caucasus and other regions. More than 95% of container traffic between the two continents is carried by sea, but these routes are long. In this context, railway infrastructure becomes vital. “If railway transport is to offer a real alternative to maritime transport, from the commercial point of view, international corridors have to be reliable and effective and provide a high quality of services. I am interested in watching the development of regional rail links such as the BTK line, which will connect Turkey to Azerbaijan through Georgia. Several Eurasian rail corridors are now competing for the freight transport market; each one has obstacles or infrastructure non standardized and costs intensive border formalities, lack of communication, technology among others”, said Kallas.
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is one of the important infrastructure projects that will provide an efficient connection between Asia and Europe. At present, works on the development of the corridor are carried out as planned, the first two phases of the project being already completed and the third is underway. The authorities of the three countries (Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia) said the line will be commissioned in 2014.
This is not the only project intended to link the two continents. Marmaray Bridge, that will be connected to two high-speed lines in Turkey and then to Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line, could be fully put in service by 2015 (tests were carried out in August and in October the tunnel was inaugurated).
The two regions have to join efforts to develop a connection between the standard-gauge railway systems and the broad-gauge railway systems. “Both communities should work together to reduce transhipment times so that EU achieves direct and seamless rail transport from the Atlantic to Pacific. In Europe, we are working hard to get rid of the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in our railways; the proposed Fourth Railway Package aims to move from a patchwork of national systems to a single rail area and it will create an efficient high quality and innovative railway with a larger role for freight and passengers. Your countries will be working towards achieving compatibility in the legal and regulatory environments, in safety and security and in technical standards. That also applies to the rest of east corridors which link Europe, Russia and other Black Sea countries and the Far East”, said Kallas.
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