The project was initiated in the 1950s, with the objective of providing a continuous 8,750 miles (14,080km) rail link between Singapore and Istanbul, Turkey, with possible further connections to Europe and Africa. At the time shipping and air travel were not as well developed, and the project promised to significantly reduce shipping times and costs between Europe and Asia. Progress in developing the TAR was hindered by political and economic obstacles throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. By the 1990s, the end of the Cold War and normalisation of relations between some countries improved the prospects for creating a rail network across the Asian continent.[citation needed]
The TAR was seen as a way to accommodate the huge increases in international trade between Eurasian nations and facilitate the increased movements of goods between countries. It was also seen as a way to improve the economies and accessibility of landlocked countries like Laos, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and the Central Asian republics.
The Northern Corridor will link Europe and Northeast Asia via Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, North Korea and South Korea, with breaks of gauge at the Polish-Belarusian border (1,435mm or 4ft8+1⁄2in to 1,520mm or 4ft11+27⁄32in), the Kazakhstan-Chinese border and the Mongolian-Chinese border (both 1,520mm to 1,435mm). The 5,750 miles (9,250km)Trans-Siberian Railway covers much of this route and currently carries large amounts of freight from East Asia to Moscow and on to the rest of Europe. Due to political problems with North Korea, freight from South Korea must currently be shipped by sea to the port of Vladivostok to access the route.[citation needed]
The Trans-Asian Railway Network Agreement is an agreement signed on 10 November 2006, by seventeen Asian nations as part of a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) effort to build a transcontinental railway network between Europe and Pacific ports in China.[2] The plan has sometimes been called the "Iron Silk Road" in reference to the historical Silk Road trade routes.[3] UNESCAP's Transport & Tourism Division began work on the initiative in 1992 when it launched the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development project.[4]
The agreement formally came into force on 11 June 2009.[5]
Network
The Trans-Asian Railway system will consist of four main railway routes. The existing Trans-Siberian railway, which connects Moscow to Vladivostok, will be used for a portion of the network in Russia.[citation needed] Another corridor to be included will connect China to Korea, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.[6] In 2003, the president of Kazakhstan proposed building a standard gauge link from Dostyk (on the Chinese border) to Gorgan in Iran; it has not yet been built.[7]
Standards
Complicating the plan is the differences in rail gauges currently in use across the continent. While China, Iran, Laos and Turkey use 1,435mm (4ft8+1⁄2in) standard gaugetracks, tracks of Russia and Central Asia are gauged at 1,520mm (4ft11+27⁄32in). In South Asia, India's and Pakistan's tracks are gauged at 1,676mm (5ft6in). In South East Asia, the tracks of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are 1,000mm (3ft3+3⁄8in) metre gauge with some dual gauge tracks near the China–Vietnam border and within Bangladesh, and tracks in Indonesia and Japan are mostly 1,067mm (3ft6in) gauge.[4] This leads to time-consuming interchanges or transloading to handle the break of gauge at main connecting points in the network.
Other standards to consider include allowing for interoperability:
Signalling systems – where signals are electronic, not physically visible, and must be 'read' by equipment in the locomotives, or where the train must interact in different ways with the infrastructure
Electromagnetic interference – where radio waves (noise) from electric motors can interact with different signalling systems
Transportation and railway ministers from forty one nations participated in the week-long conference[9] held in Busan, South Korea, where the agreement was formulated. The proposed 80,900-km railway network will originate from the Pacific seaboard of Asia and end on the doorsteps of Europe. The agreement's cosigners included the following participating countries:[2]
The 28 countries that did not sign the agreement at the conference had until 31 December 2007, to join and ratify the agreement.[10]
On 5 May 2007, officials in Bangladesh announced that the nation will sign on to the agreement at an upcoming meeting in New York City. The plan for the network includes three lines between India and Myanmar that traverse Bangladesh.[11] India made a similar announcement on 17 May 2007. As part of the agreement, India will build and rehabilitate rail links with neighboring Myanmar in projects that are estimated to cost more than ₹ 29.41billion (US$730million).[12]Bangladesh finally signed the agreement on 10 November 2007.[13]
The Northern Corridor was in operation as early as the 1960s, although at first only for Soviet Union-China trade. The Southern corridor has progressively opened up after 2000. Successes so far include:
Second link from China to Kazakhstan (line Zhetigen–Khorgos, completed in December 2011).
Direct freight service between Germany and China through Russia and Mongolia or Kazakhstan, operating from the first decade of the 2000s (transloading of container at break-of-gauge).
Southern Line
The Eurasia Marmaray Tunnel connecting European Turkey and Asian Turkey, opened in 2013. At that time the tunnel was isolated from rail network but finally got connected with the completion of Marmaray project in 2019. The first international freight train transporting magnesite and connecting Çukurhisar (in Tepebaşı, Eskişehir) to Austria ran through the tunnel last week of October 2019. Before this, there was a freight-train ferry there.
A train ferry across Lake Van, from 1970s allowing rail services between Turkey and Iran.
Iran-Pakistan: A Bam–Zahedan link, with a break-of-gauge at Zahedan (Pakistan railway uses broad gauge 1,676mm (5ft6in) and Iran railway uses standard gauge 1,435mm (4ft8+1⁄2in)). In August 2009 a goods train carrying containers traveled from Islamabad, Pakistan to Istanbul, Turkey; by April 2011, trains were running regularly.[15]
In 2016, Bangladesh decided to connect to the network with a rail line from Dohazari to Gundum near Myanmar border.[16]
The Boten–Vientiane railway opened in December 2021, completing the Central section of the line and forming a near through-train connection from Kunming to Singapore (with a break-of-gauge in Vientiane).
Agreement in 2014 between Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia on completing the north–south corridor.[17] The missing link is Astara–Rasht, 167km. On 7 January 2017, it was announced that construction on this section would start in 2017.[18]
"'Iron Silk Road' UN Treaty" (Press release). UNESCAP (reprinted by National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers [RMT] Bristol Rail Branch). 6 October 2006. Retrieved 15 November 2006.
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