Intermodal railway transport, including universal cars and containers gains ground compared to other types of long-distance freight transport organization due to its benefits regarding the freight delivery process: the capacity of the freight volume is much higher and the partnerships signed between companies contribute to the simplification of border crossing procedures, as well as the use of electronic systems and efficient transport connections which significantly reduce transit and transport time. Organised in container trains, universal and specialized cars, railway transport can overcome obstacles and can easily answer to the challenges launched both by the varied transport market and the latest customer requirements. To approach the problems of railway companies, the countries involved have to adopt joint positions aimed at eliminating barriers and at increasing the freight transit and implicitly the transport of higher volumes of goods.
In this context, Moldovan Railways (CFM) has signed a partnership with RZD (Russia), Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukraine) and KTZ (Kazakhstan) on implementing the project for the delivery of logistics services for container traffic on Western Europe-China axis (via the Republic of Moldova and Romania), the trains to be operated being equipped with universal cars, specialized containers and refrigerating containers. In order to help the service develop, the four companies plan to involve railway managers as well as operators, forwarders, investors and economic agents interested to participate in the project aimed to deliver railway container transport services with the capacity of 20-40 ft. The cars will form a special train that will run through the Republic of Moldova on the route China (Urumqi) – Alashankou/Dostyk – Iletsk 1/ Kanissay – Suzemka/Zernovo – Cuciurgan/Novosavitskaza – Bender – Ungheni/KristeshtiZhizhiya, and further on the route Bender/Reni/Giurgiuleşti/Galaţi – Giurgiu/Ruse to Greece and Turkey. “The priorities of the project consist in increasing the quality of the transport services, reducing travelling times, providing facilities at border crossings and during customs controls”, said CFM in a statement.
Another project to be developed is the Viking project which involved first Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, then the companies in the ports of Klaipėda, Odessa and Ilyichevsk. The distance of 1,734 km is covered in 48 hours and the time for crossing the EU border is 30 minutes. The performance of this service has made countries launch regular transport services at the beginning of 2012. Also, as of December 2012, Lithuania and Ukraine have decided to continue adopting new measures for promoting the Viking railway transport connections. Therefore, in December, the representatives of the two countries have decided to implement programmes to attract other countries in the project, especially in order to expand the route to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. According to statistics, the freight volume on this route increased in 2012 and in the first 10 months Viking trains carried 11.6 thousand TEU in Ukraine compared to only 2.3 thousand TEU in the same period of 2011.
These transport services are aimed to maximise the capacity of trains and the freight volumes in ports thus contributing to reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the use of infrastructure.
If at the beginning, these services were confronted with problems concerning technical aspects (lack of adequate rolling stock), information (different IT standards and documents), organisation (different interests and instructions), legal aspects (different regulations and legislations), economy and policy (lack of international agreements), a significant part of these problems has been eliminated through joint approaches and the conclusion of agreements between interested parties.
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