OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2013. "The integration of separate railway systems into a single Eurasian transport system and the development of global transportation corridors are becoming priorities in the context of globalisation and ongoing integration processes, such as EU enlargement, Russia’s participation in the WTO and the Single Economic Space of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus," said Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, reported the press-centre of RZD.  

Yakunin was speaking in Vienna, where he took part in a panel discussion on "Russia and the CIS: Beyond Crisis" held during the annual forum of Euromoney, the financial publisher, on Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2012, Russian Railways continued to work closely with the governments of Slovakia, Austria and Ukraine to promote a project to develop a new Eurasian transport corridor to Bratislava and Vienna, which is a practical way to extend the 10,000km rail link to key European markets.

The head of Russian Railways said that the acquisition of French logistics operator GEFCO in 2012 would help to attract more transit traffic to the Europe - Asia transcontinental route.

Russian Railways has been making significant efforts recently to develop competitive transport shipments along this route.

The next logical step will be to develop a sales network for transcontinental transit shipments and services through the Companhy’s own logistics operator.

"Creating the largest logistics operator within the Russian Railways Holding will ensure lower operating costs for domestic enterprises by giving them access to efficient transport solutions and taking things to a new level of development," said Vladimir Yakunin.