International Railroad Discussion > The New Silk Roads

A report on how quickly the New Silk Roads are growing. They could reach One million TEU's by 2020 but then the Chinese incentive payments may drop.

I say Roads because there are multiple paths across many countries.




https://www.railfreight.com/specials/2018/12/24/eurasian-rail-traffic-in-2018-heading-to-a-million-teus/

Posted from Android

The extension of broad gauge railroads into Austria is something new.

One of the artifacts of the Austro Hungarian empire was establishing western standard rail gauge into its eastern regions.

Great link, thank you.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> The extension of broad gauge railroads into
> Austria is something new.

If it ever happens. It would be expensive and you would still have to transload at Wien.

The plan is to build the broad gauge track to Vienna to elimate a gauge change. The containers would be shipped via road from Vienna.

The EU is not happy with the plan.


https://www.railfreight.com/specials/2018/10/30/eu-disapproves-of-broad-gauge-extension-bratislava-vienna/

Posted from Android

ActionMike Wrote:
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> The plan is to build the broad gauge track to
> Vienna to elimate a gauge change. The containers
> would be shipped via road from Vienna.
>
> The EU is not happy with the plan.

And who is going to finance the railway, China?

Austria is already over committed to new railway construction, several projects have had their timelines extended. The Brenner Basee Tunnel is over budget, the Koralm Tunnel project is in trouble, and they want to build a Neubaustrecke, much of it in tunnel, to relocate the Westbahn east from Salzburg. Show me the money and I will believe,and if Brexit happens the EU will have a big hole in their budget.

SOO6617 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ActionMike Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The plan is to build the broad gauge track to
> > Vienna to elimate a gauge change. The
> containers
> > would be shipped via road from Vienna.
> >
> > The EU is not happy with the plan.
>
> And who is going to finance the railway, China?
>
> Austria is already over committed to new railway
> construction, several projects have had their
> timelines extended. The Brenner Basee Tunnel is
> over budget, the Koralm Tunnel project is in
> trouble, and they want to build a Neubaustrecke,
> much of it in tunnel, to relocate the Westbahn
> east from Salzburg. Show me the money and I will
> believe,and if Brexit happens the EU will have a
> big hole in their budget.

The European Commission has made it quite clear that there's no EU money going into this scheme and Russia doesn't have the wherewithal to fund it. So unless there's an about face I doubt this is going anywhere.

The plan is not quite as ambitious or expensive as the reports seem to indicate, although it would still be extremely costly and is not exactly practical because of the proposal to distribute the containers from Vienna over already overcrowded roads, an idea that is exactly the opposite of what the EU is trying to accomplish by its Shift2Rail initiative. There is already, and has been operational for over 50 years, IIRC, a broad (Russian) gauge line from Chop, in SW Ukraine, across the Slovak border to the large VSZ steel mill in Kosice, eastern Slovakia; it was built to supply the steelmaking operation with iron ore, coal and other minerals from the former Soviet Union, and is now only lightly used. The "Silk Road" plan is to extend that line to Bratislava and Vienna, a distance of 350 miles or so, which sounds relatively easy until you notice that the terrain is hilly to mountainous, with the valleys and ridges running generally north-south, while the rail line would have to run east-west -- rather like the Pennsylvania RR's line across the Alleghenies between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, without the benefit of the Juniata and Conemaugh river valleys to ease construction (the current standard gauge line runs further north, through the Vah and other river valleys, but this covers a longer distance and there are also many places where the railroad and highway are already squeezed into tight spaces, with little room for another rail line).

The whole scheme looks to me as if it was dreamed up by a group of bureaucrats looking at a non-topographical map, and saying "Oh, yeah, look - there's a rail line here, and we only have to extend it by 500 km or so, and then Vienna is right in the center of Europe and has lots of good roads radiating from it!" -- without ever realizing that the terrain is very difficult, and the highways are already overcrowded with heavy truck traffic (my wife and I were on an Italian tour in September 2017, and the tour bus ride from Venice to Stresa via Milan, on the Brenner Pass railroad line and highway to Switzerland, took about 3 to 4 hours longer than it should have because of heavy truck traffic reducing our speed from 100 km/h to about 30, with a lot of stop-and-go incidents).

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)   

Those mountains in what is now Slovakia kept Turks, Austrians, Russians, etc separated for 500 years.

Posted from Android

airbrakegeezer Wrote:
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> the current
> standard gauge line runs further north, through
> the Vah and other river valleys, but this covers a
> longer distance and there are also many places
> where the railroad and highway are already
> squeezed into tight spaces, with little room for
> another rail line).
>
> Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)   

There's also a secondary standard gauge line running west from the end of the 5' line at the steelworks at Haniska to Zvolen and onward to Bratislava. It currently sees steel traffic and four or five daily through Bratislava to Kosice trains, including an overnight sleeper. It's not quite as daunting a route as the main line through the foothills of the Tatra Mountains although a lengthy tunnel through the Slovensky Kras would require duplication if they follow an established line.

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> ActionMike Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The plan is to build the broad gauge track to Vienna to elimate a gauge change. The containers
> > would be shipped via road from Vienna.
> >
> > The EU is not happy with the plan.
>
> And who is going to finance the railway, China?

Hasn't China financed infrastructure improvements in Africa?

They may consider it a long term investment for influence and future markets.

Brian

Why would China finance a 5' gauge line, surely they would be more likely to fund a standard gauge line to connect their manufacturers with their markets in Western Europe?