First step to link Asia with Europe by railways

From Upali Rupasinghe in New Delhi

The United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (ESCAP) has taken the first step to link Asia with Europe by railways and it will likely to be realised in about a decade.

The dream railway providing a fast and inexpensive trans-continental world connect Northern Europe with South and South East Asia, according to the UN office in New Delhi. India and its neighbours - Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - constitute a vital link in this dream railway's southern corridor connecting Thailand and Turkey.

Christened the Trans-Asian Railway Network, the first demonstration of the project was undertaken in parts of Russia and China.

The network comprises over 80,000 km of rail routes of international importance linking 27 ESCAP member countries in the region.

The aim of the network is to offer efficient transport services for the movement of goods within the UNESCAP region and between Asia and Europe as well as provide improved access for landlocked countries to its major ports.

Asia-Pacific nations have already finalised a draft inter-govern mental agreement on the railway network. The agreement is due for signing next year.

Under its terms, a working group will be established. "It will be a forum within which transport policy-makers and railway managers will define a common vision, adopt joint programs of action, identify investment requirements and sources, and benchmark progress," noted UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su.

In closs collaboration with the countries concerned, ESCAP has already started operationalising the railway network.

Step-by-step approach

Given the extent of the territory covered, the differences in standards, and differences in the levels of technical development between railways in the region, ESCAP adopted a step-by-step approach to define the railway network.

The network has been divided into four major components and all of them have been studied separately. These components include-a northern corridor connecting the rail networks of China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation and the Korean Peninsula, a subregional network covering the ASEAN and Indo-China sub-regions and a north-south corridor linking Northern Europe to the Persian Gulf through the Russian Federation, central Asia, the Caucasus region as well as across the Caspian Sea.

The Trans-Asian Railway was initiated in the 1960s with the objective of providing a continuous 14,000 km rail link between singapore and Istanbul, with possible onward connections to Europe and Africa.

The link offered the potential to greatly shorten the distances and reduce transit times between countries and regions, while being a catalyst for the notion of international transport as a tool for trade expansion, economic growth and cultural exchanges.

Four demonstration runs of container block-trains have been successfully implemented along key segments of the Northern Corridor between November 2003 and July 2004.