Kosice-Vienna Railroad To Boost Europe-Russia Economic Ties - Austria's Transport Minister

Muhammad Irfan Published March 18, 2019 | 09:36 PM

The broad-gauge railway line from the Slovak town of Kosice to Austria's capital of Vienna will strengthen the economic and cultural ties between Russia and Europe, Andreas Reichhardt, general secretary at the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology said on Monday

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2019) The broad-gauge railway line from the Slovak town of Kosice to Austria's capital of Vienna will strengthen the economic and cultural ties between Russia and Europe, Andreas Reichhardt, general secretary at the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology said on Monday.

Earlier on Monday a Sputnik correspondent reported that the transport ministries of Russia, Slovakia and Austria signed a memorandum on the construction of a railroad linking the eastern Slovak city of Kosice with the Austrian capital of Vienna.

"The extension of the broad gauge to Austria is a strategic opportunity for us because I think it will strengthen the economic and cultural ties between Europe and Russia, as well as the entire economic space in Central Europe," Reichhardt told reporters at the International Railway Congress in Vienna.

He added that sanctions will not affect the project.

"The goods that will be transported [via the railway line] have nothing to do sanctions," Reichhardt said in an apparent reference to the economic restrictive measures that the European Union has been imposing on Russia since 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis.

The Kosice-Vienna railroad is an international project developed by Breitspur Planungsgesellschaft Company that is jointly owned by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia. Once completed, it will provide an uninterrupted rail transport corridor from western China via Russia to Central Europe. The Kosice-Vienna railroad will complete a goods corridor with a length of 6,800 miles that will reduce transportation times to 15 days. The company says that the freight capacity of the track will be at least 16 million tonnes per year.

The railroad will use a 1,520-millimeter gauge, which is common for Russia and some Eastern European countries. The most commonly used railway gauge in Western and Central Europe is 1,435-millimeter.