Agreement between Austria, Russia and Slovakia in order to extend the railway net to Russian wide gauge until Vienna



The Ministries of the Trasport of Austria, Russia and Slovakia have undersigned a memorandum of understanding for the development of railway infrastructures along the New Via of the Silk. In particular the understanding, signed from the Austrian undersecretary to the Transports, innovation and technology, Andreas Reichhardt, from the Slovakian undersecretary to the Transports and constructions, Ladislava Cengelová, and from the vice Russian minister to the Transports, Vladimir Tokarev, is face to the realization of a railway line to wide gauge that reaches until the region of the so-called Twin City delimited from the vital Austrian, Vienna, and from the vital Slovak, Bratislava, that they are distant about 60 kilometers.

The project, proposed from Russia and promoted from the Breitspur Planungsgesellschaft mbH, society with center to Vienna that is participated by railway group Austrian ÖBB, that Slovak Zeleznice Slovenskej Republik (ZSR), by the railway group Ukrainian Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) and by that Russian Russian Railways (RZD), previews the construction of a new railway corridor with wide gauge of 1520 millimeters, that it characterizes the great part of the Russian railway net, from the city of Kosice, in Slovakia oriental, where currently the net to wide gauge finishes, until Vienna.

The project has the scope to diminish the times of transport from Vladivostok to the region of the Twin City from 30 to 15 days, line on which is previewed a traffic of the goods pairs at least 16 million tons per year.

With the protocol of understanding which signed yesterday the three nations have engaged themselves to put into effect this project expressing the their full support to the initiative. On November the ÖBB-Infrastruktur, the society that manages the railway net Austrian, has already started the first procedures of approval of the project, procedures that already are activated also in Slovakia. Moreover a three-sided working group between Austria, Slovakia and Russia is created that are working to the definition of a contract in order to put into effect the project. Moreover with the memorandum of understanding the Breitspur Planungsgesellschaft is designated which charged enterprise to take care of the next phases of planning and the concretizzazione of the realization of the project.

According to the forecasts, the construction of the new line to wide gauge of about 400 kilometers, included the realization of intermodal terminals in Slovakia, the district of Nine Zamky, and in Austria let alone of other infrastructures, will be carried out in about eight years and will cost 6,49 billion euros.