Eurasian landbridge: A new name for GETO
In the past, when the Eurasian landbridge was mentioned, it first of all denoted the Trans-Siberian railway corridor that GETO originally was named for. Yet this has changed completely since the Belt and Road Initiative was introduced in 2013 by the Chinese government. With its new name, GETO wants to take into account the eminent importance of the Eurasian landbridge.
Also under its new name, GETO will represent the interests of the operators and forwarders in the market, it will act as an information platform for its members and maintain important public relations work to market the Eurasian landbridge and to contribute to the increase of transport volumes along the new Silk Road, reads a press release.
In view of this, GETO considers it indispensable to take steps to safeguard the train offers for the long term. This includes further reducing the rates for routes, wagons, containers in order to be able to keep the current, subsidized price level also in future.
The GETO members also think it necessary to offer clocked departures with fixed schedules, to enforce a further reduction of transit times, to introduce end-to-end IT structures to speed up handling, and to create attractive models for the return of empties, for which, in the long term, the only sensible solution is an increase in east bound volumes.
In establishing so-called hub systems at the CIS entry and exit border points, GETO sees another measure to cut costs and thus increase competitiveness. It would allow bundling train traffics and thus help achieve a higher utilization of the broad gauge sections that are not fully utilized nowadays, as Europe and China have different rules concerning maximum train lengths.
GETO was founded in Basel, Switzerland, in 1978. The group is among the initiators and founders of the international Coordinating Council on Transsiberian Transportation (CCTT) registered in Moscow, and plays an important role as the West-European presence of an international network for the support of rail traffics between Europe and Asia. The joint endeavors of CCTT and GETO to back international traffic along the Eurasians landbridge with various initiatives have substantially contributed to the development of the traffics along this important rail corridor.
