RCG and Cosco strengthen their partnership
The Rail Cargo Group – freight transport division of ÖBB – is consistently pursuing its strategy of internationalisation and is systematically expanding its position on the Silk Road. For example, the first transcontinental container train to the Province of Hunan in China departed from the RCG’s BILK terminal. In addition, the cooperation with the Chinese large shipping company Cosco Shipping Lines will be further intensified. From now on, freight trains run daily between Budapest and the Greek port of Piraeus.
By the autumn of 2017, the Rail Cargo Group, in close cooperation with Cosco Shipping Lines, had already operated 200 trains from Piraeus via the Balkan route to Budapest. Now the frequency is increased to daily trains. With the growing supply of rail logistics services to the Far East and Central Asia, the freight railway underlines the strategy of internationalisation across European borders.
With the revitalisation of the traffic flows on the trans-siberian and asiatic route, the Eurasian land bridge shoes an enormous potential. More than 95 percent of the current cargo volume between Asia and Europe will be transported on the international sea route by container ship, reads a press release of the Rail Cargo Group.
The Silk Road Initiative “One Belt, One Road” aims to strengthen rail freight transport on the Eurasian Corridor, complementing the maritime links via European ports.
