InterRail enters rail company AzerRail (Baku)

Swiss InterRail Holding AG positions itself in Cuacasus through 50 per cent-takeover of AzerRail
 
As of 1 January 2013, the Swiss InterRail Holding AG will take over 50 per cent of the shares of the railway service provider AzerRail, based in Baku. The remaining 50 per cent are held by the private limited company Azerbaijan Railways (Azarbaycan Damir Yollars/ADY). Both companies have been cooperating for a long time.
 
By being involved in this development, the InterRail group ensures its strategic position in the new railway corridor from Europe via Turkey and Georgia to Baku and further on to Central Asia. Along with the announcement that the railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus will enter into service as of 2013, and with the completion of the railway project Kars (Turkey) – Akhalkalaki – Tblisi (Georgia) – Baku (Azerbaijan), there will be an end-to-end normal gauge railroad from Europe to Asia for the first time.
 
At the Turkish-Georgian border, the interface between the normal gauge and broad gauge systems, the Georgian Railways intends to set up a logistics centre with the necessary capacities for handling normal to broad gauge and vice versa, as well as for other logistic services. The construction works on the previously missing segment between Kars and Akhalkalaki are almost finished, while the remaining route segments are still reconstructed and modernised.
 
“After the start of operation on the entire route, scheduled for 2014 at the latest, annual goods volume is expected to reach 6 million tonnes. By 2030 this figure shall be two and a half times as much. Anyhow, when it comes to results of this major rail project, Azerbaijan will play an increasing role in the Eurasian railway goods traffic,” estimates Hans Reinhard, Chairman of InterRail Holding AG. By actively offering its railway services, InterRail wwants to constructively support this development on the “Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia” (TRACECA).
 
InterRail considers the Caucasus region and Azerbaijan in particular as a growing market in railway traffic, in both east-west and north-south direction. “Apart from the east-west railway corridor, there is also a new north-south corridor Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran/Persian Gulf being created along the west bank of the Caspian Sea,” says Hans Reinhard.

Quelle: LogEastics

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