ZV Spedition & Logistik favours broad gauge to Austria
On the occasion of the presentation of a feasibility study, Wolfram Senger-Weiss, President of the Zentralverband (ZV, Austrian association of forwarding and logistics), welcomes the clear words of the Minister of Infrastructure Jörg Leichtfried about the extension of the Transsib broad-gauge railway for freight traffic into the Vienna / Lower Austria region.
“The economic added value of an extension of the broad gauge to Austria is evident and a long-standing demand of the Zentralverband Spedition & Logistik. It is very gratifying that the current Deloitte study comes to this conclusion, and that Mr. Leichtfried, Minister of Infrastructure, wants to make Austria the logistics hub of Europe. For the next federal government, this means they have to take action and set a clear focus on logistics in the interests of the local business,” says Wolfram Senger-Weiss.
At the moment, neighboring countries such as Germany, Slovakia and Hungary are showing an increasing commitment to new logistics projects. Now it was time to move from planning to action.
According to the ZV, the expansion of the broad gauge is also a tremendous opportunity to benefit from these trade flows thanks to the enormous investments China is making into the new Silk Road OBOR (One Belt One Road). Wolfram Senger-Weiss: “Austria could thus create its own trading place as an inland country – a so-called dry port – and thus secure a piece of the growing trade volume with Asia.”
Austria is already a major logistics location for Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe. 11,000 companies employ directly 160,000 people generating turnover of EUR 33.6 billion. This figure includes a direct added value of EUR 8.6 billion (source: IWI).
Every person employed in the Austrian logistics industry secures up to 3.5 jobs in Austria’s economy. Each euro of value added by the logistics industry in Austria secures up to EUR 4.11 in added value in Austria’s industry. In the international ranking of the World Bank (LPI), Austria is ranked 7th.