This interesting article ties together several efforts by national rail agencies to drum up more traffic. The countries range from Russia to the UK.
When you have a national railroad, rather than private enterprise, you can make quick changes that will reduce costs for the kinds of shipments you want.
The article focuses on Russia, which is losing lots of cargoes from the Far East headed for Europe. Russian rail traffic is suffering from sanctions the West has imposed due to the war in Ukraine. Recent efforts by Ukraine on the war front around Kursk have also compromised Russian rail. Apparently grabbing a few rail nodes has given Ukraine access to some control over much of the Russian rail network!
And some of the competitors, such as Kazakhstan, are making competitive moves as well, to garner even bigger shares of the Asia to Europe rail cargoes. With the Red Sea attacks on ships by the Houthis, which forced ships to avoid the Suez Canal and take on much longer voyages from Asia to Europe, the Kazakhstan rail link is prospering greatly. It skirts Russia to link to European rail lines.
Other national rail agencies are also acting to promote rail cargo. That’s a good thing for emissions. It takes trucks and their emissions off the road. That’s part of the motivation in the UK.
Anything we can do to promote rail cargoes over trucks will benefit the environment.
By Alexander Whiteman 29/08/2024
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Supply Chain and Logistics 