Georgia becomes central hub of European and Asian train routes
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Georgia is going to play an important role connecting two major transport routes; one connecting Western and Central Europe and the other connecting central and South-East Asia.
European and Asian transport industry experts spent two days in Georgia’s capital for an international conference on how Georgia will connect the East with the West via two important railway routes.
The initiative will allow Georgia to become a central hub, connecting the Viking route in Europe with the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA).
The Viking container train was an international initiative spanning from Lithuania through Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Turkey that connected the Baltic and Black Seas via railway.
Meanwhile the TRACECA corridor united Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
This week Tbilisi hosted the Viking Container Train two-day international conference, which was attended by railway administrations from both railway routes and a range of countries involved.
Over the two days the officials worked on optimising the scheme of delivering goods between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea.
The aim of the project was to have western European countries and Baltic countries be connected to the Black Sea Basin,” said Georgian Railways general director Mamuka Bakhtadze.
Eight countries are members of the project so far however we expect Azerbaijan to join us. This will enable us to connect central Asian countries to Western Europe,” he said.
Georgian Railway became a full member of the Viking Container Train route in April 2015.
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