“The Romanian rail freight operator, CFR Marfa and the Port of Constanta are interested to join the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, a link that will assure freight transport from Western China to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania to Central Europe within 16 estimated days,” CFR Marfa’s Head of the International Affairs Department, Mihai Rosca said, during the Railway PRO Investment Summit, organised by Railway PRO, Club Feroviar and Romanian Railway Industry Association.
In addition, he said that BDZ Cargo and Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI) may join the project. Recently, Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping announced that Poland’s railway operator PKP LHS PKP Linia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa (PKP LHS) has become a member of of the Coordination Committee of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Also Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) is elaborating a draft proposal to join the container transport project via Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TMTM) was initiated by China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and aims to revive foreign trade and cargo transport between China and Europe, via Central Asia and the South Caucasus region.
TMTM is a 4766 km-long multimodal route connecting China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and reaching Europe as its final destination. With an annual capacity of 27.5 million tons of containerized cargo, TMTM is estimated to transport up to 300,000 TEU by 2020.
The CFR Marfa’s representative said that the company intends to actively be involved in international transport system, by attracting new transit volumes of cargo, especially on China-Europe route, as Romania is a gate to Europe. In this context, the key elements for Romania include Constanta Port – as the largest and most diversified facilities in the Black Sea, an extensive rail and road transport infrastructure, a directly entry to the European Union customs area, the existence of two European Corridors (IV and IX), and the competitive price in the context of an open rail freight market.
CFR Marfa has a 50% rail freight market share and, by total modes of transport, a 8% market share. The company owns a 13,500 active fleet of freight wagons (total number 32,000) and 385 of active locomotives (with a total number of 907). In addition, CFR Marfa has 26 intermodal terminals, including a terminal in the Port of Constanta.
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