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Intl container transport on TransSib grows 23% this year

The Russian Railways chief said that the “Trans- Siberian Railway is currently viewed as a transcontinental line connecting the Asia-Pacific region with Russia

HELSNIKI, September 27 (Itar-Tass) — The volume of international transportation of large containers on the Trans-Siberian Railway route over the first seven months of 2012 has increased by 23 percent, President of the Russian Railways company (RZD) Vladimir Yakunin said on Thursday at the 21st plenary meeting of the International Association Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation (CCTT) that opened in Helsinki. Taking part in the event are representatives of railway administrations of 25 countries.

The CCTT was founded by the RF Ministry of Railway Communication (since 2003 - after the restructuring - JSC Russian Railways), DB AG (Deutsche Bahn), GETO (Association of European Trans-Siberian Operators), and KIFFA (Korean International Freight Forwarders Association). Presently the CCTT consists of 114 members from 22 countries, including major railways and shipping companies, operators and forwarders, ports and stevedoring companies, state organisations, administrations and municipalities, telecom and marketing companies, as well as security services and media.

Yakunin said that in 2011, when a 27-percent growth was reached on the Trans-Siberian Railway, 563 thousand containers were transported. He also stressed that “very good prospects for growth remain, according to realistic forecasts of experts, at least twice.” Achieving such growth, he said, “will allow the transport sector to get additional revenues in the amount of at least 2 billion US dollars annually.”

The Russian Railways chief said that the “Trans- Siberian Railway is currently viewed as a transcontinental line connecting the Asia-Pacific region with Russia, the Baltic States and Europe.” Among the promising directions of its further development he named boosting of export-import cargo shipments and transit.

The main purposes of the CCTT are: attracting transit and foreign trade cargo to the Trans-Siberian route (TSR); coordinating activities of companies that participate in international cargo transportation on the TSR - to ensure high-quality delivery of goods and development of economic relations between countries of South-East Asia, Far and Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe based on using the infrastructure of Russian railways.

Vladimir Yakunin called the CCTT meeting “a unique international venue for the development of a common approach to the transportation of cargoes that makes it possible to reduce barriers.” “The creation of a harmonised system of international transportation across the Eurasian continent is a challenge of time,” the RZD president stressed.