Trans-Asian Railway

The Trans-Asian Railway ( TAR ; German  trans Asian Railway ) is a project of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations to create a 80,900 km long railway network for rail freight through Asia and Europe . The project is also referred to as the Iron Silk Road , based on the old Silk Road .

history

The project was started in the 1950s with the aim of maintaining a continuous 14,000 km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul (and other connections to Europe and Africa ). Since shipping and air traffic were not as developed at that time as they are today, this project promised a significant reduction in transport times and costs between Europe and Asia. However, the further progress of the project was hampered by various political and economic hurdles in the following decades. It was not until the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War , that the prospects of creating a rail link through the Asian continent increased.

aims

With the TAR it is hoped to be able to cope with the rapidly increasing freight traffic between the Eurasian countries and also to improve access to landlocked states such as Laos , Afghanistan , Mongolia and the Central Asian republics.

Planning

Much of the rail network already exists, but there are still several crucial gaps. One problem is the different gauges in the different countries: In Iran , China and Korea the 1435 mm standard gauge is used, in North and Central Asia the 1520 mm wide gauge is mostly used, in India , Pakistan and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka , 1676mm wide gauge is used, and much of Southeast Asia uses meter gauge . On the TAR would largely on the Umspuren refrain, but with the help of corresponding loading stations the container transhipment to other trains.

The following four corridors were included in the planning by 2001:

• The northern corridor connects Europe with the Pacific via Germany , Poland , Belarus , Russia, Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China and Korea. This leads to changes in the gauge between Poland and Belarus and between Kazakhstan or Mongolia and China. A large part of this route is covered by the 9,200 km long Trans-Siberian Railway , which already plays an important role in freight traffic. Because of North Korea's isolation policy , goods from South Korea have to be transported to Vladivostok by ship .

• The South Corridor runs from Europe to Southeast Asia via Turkey, Iran, Pakistan , India, Bangladesh, Myanmar to Thailand . Further branches lead to Yunnan ( China ) and via Malaysia to Singapore . There are still gaps between India and Myanmar, between Myanmar and Thailand, between Thailand and Cambodia , between Cambodia and Vietnam and between Thailand and Yunnan. The gauge changes between Iran and Pakistan, between India and Myanmar, and between Thailand and China.

• A Southeast Asian network

• The north-south corridor connects northern Europe with the Persian Gulf ; it begins in Helsinki and runs through Russia to the Caspian Sea , where it divides into three branches:
  • The western route goes through Azerbaijan , Armenia and western Iran.
  • The middle route is by ferry across the Caspian Sea to Iran.
  • The eastern route runs through Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to eastern Iran.

All three routes reunite in Tehran and lead to the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas .

Progress

In the south corridor , the gap in Iran between Bam and Zahedan was closed in 2009. In August of the same year, a test train drove from Islamabad to Istanbul in 14 days . In the east, the first test train ran a year later in nine days. The containers are reloaded between trains of different track widths in the Iranian border town of Zahedan.

See also

• Asian highway project
• New Eurasian Continental Bridge
• One Belt, One Road ("New Silk Road")
• Trans-Eurasia-Express
• Trans-European Networks

Web links

• UNESCAP: About the Trans-Asian Railway (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Trans-Asian ECO train returns to Islamabad. In: Railway Gazette, August 12, 2010, accessed August 14, 2010 .