A Study on Establishment of Multi-Routed Eurasian Railway

Abstract

This study presents logistics strategy to establish routes for the Eurasian railway which will stimulate the cooperation and competition in the international logistics market among the northeast Asian countries. These countries, which include China, Japan, Russia and Korea, are paying higher costs for transportation and communication due to repeated political conflict and confrontation. They currently use surface logistics system to transport nearly all goods between Europe and Asia, with the exception of certain merchandise that requires air transport. Because of this, the ancient Silk Road remains a mere vestige of its past. So far, the Trans Siberian Railway (TSR) is used by Russia mostly for northern Eurasian transport due to difficulties of service. The Trans China Railway (TCR), built in 1992, was not successful in establishing an international logistic passage. In countries such as Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Azerbaijan, that are not adjacent to the sea, the establishment of good transportation system is anticipated to take a long time because of the characteristic of resource development and poor logistical infrastructures, even though they have great economic upheaval plans with the development of their own resources. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a transportation organization that officially began operations in 2001, is composed of six regular member countries (China, Russia, Tadzhikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) and five observer countries (Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran). SCO was initially established as a military alliance among these countries to protect themselves from terrorist activities and has since been expanded to include the sharing of cooperative transportation and trade resources. Russia exerts her best effort to activate TSR as a government project for the balanced development of the northern area and the economic development of far‐east Siberia. It has provisionally agreed to improve and repair the railroad between Nahjin and Hassan, with an intent to connect TSR and TKR (Trans Korea Railway; by Russia, North Korea and South Korea). The development plan of this area overlaps with Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) which was promoted by UNDP. GTI is a cooperative project among five countries of South Korea, Mongolia, China, Russia and North Korea, and is subject to review on the appropriation of energy, tour, environments and railroad connection between Mongolia and China as well as a ferry route to north‐east Asia. Japan has been supplying large scale infrastructures in the Mongolian area without any charges and, thus, needs to pay attention to Russia and China, for their target to get East Asia main railroad to connect to Mongolia and Zalubino, Russia. The denuclearization program of North Korea needs to be successful. In case it does not progress, the connecting plans for TKR and TSR, and that for TKR and TCR may be facilitated by the involvement of the United States, as well as by the development of a program promoted by UN ESCAP