Russian Railways CEO: Freight Transport Volume Between Europe, Asia to Grow

Russian Railways CEO: Freight Transport Volume Between Europe, Asia to Grow

The volume and speed of freight transport services between the countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region have been consistently increasing, said the presidents of the Russian and Kazakhstani railway companies.

On Tuesday, on the sidelines of the Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum, the heads of the national railway companies made a presentation, The Development of the Transport and Logistics Potential of the Eurasian Area, to the presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev.

“Over the last two years we have upgraded the railways and prepared the relevant infrastructure in order to increase the speed of transit and create better conditions as compared to sea transportation. We predict that by 2020, the volume of freight transportation between Asia and Europe could grow from $700 billion to $1.2 trillion,” said Russian Railways president Oleg Belozerov. He also said that railway transportation has long competed with sea transportation, and that it is twice as fast to deliver goods by rail from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region, plus, it is often much more profitable. The heads of the Russian and Kazakh railways also told the presidents about the Eurasian Railway Alliance, its development strategy and plans for attracting investment. They said that transit shipping between Europe and China has also grown of late.

Read more: