Trans Asia Railway to begin trial operation in October

Ahead of the restoration of the Kyungui Line linking Seoul and Shinuiju in North Korea planned for September, the Trans Asia Railway (TAR) project linking the Eurasia continent has been carried out in earnest speedier than expected.

¡°As an experimental project, we will launch an operation of a container-exclusive train on the northern line of the Asia traversing railway linking Europe, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea in October,¡± Kim Hak-Su, secretary general of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), an international organization placed under the United Nations, said in a telephone interview with Dong-a Ilbo.

Through the experimental operation, the ESCAP will check railway lines, fares, tariffs, quarantine systems, and other environmental facilities of countries through which the TAR passes, and begin discussions on the railway agreement with relevant countries.

¡°The Asia-Pacific Infra Cabinet Meeting, in which transportation ministers from 61 ESCAP-member countries are to participate, will be held in Seoul in November to engage in an in-depth discussions on the TAR project,¡± Kim also said.

In the meantime, Alexandre Czelcho, the first vice minister of the Ministry of Railway of Russia, said in an interview with Dong-a Ilbo, ¡°In case of transporting freight using the Trans Korea Railway (TKR) and the Trans Siberia Railway (TSR), we will actively participate in the modernization project of the railways in North Korea.¡±