THE FORUM OF TRANSPORT WORKERS OF EUROPE AND ASIA

The gates that should be opened

Yan Strugach
economic analyst

        There are plenty of different ways to characterise the development of our civilisation, however the oldest and most apparent seems to be the ones that demonstrate development of new routes between cities, nations and continents, including the Great Silk Road, and Passage from the Vikings to the Greeks, and the search of a route to India that resulted in discovery of Americas, construction of Panama and Suez Canals, Channel Tunnel and all others well known and less known roads and thoroughfares can be regarded, inter alia, as the most important landmarks of geopolitical changes.
        The epoch of great discoveries obviously is over. The XX-th century is the time of another science and technology revolution that contributed to the development of principally new means of human communication, the before unheard of speeds of navigating the space, but the search of new transportation routes on land, over the water and in the air is a never ending process. And the present issue of the SEGODNYA comprehensively shows the significance and complexity of the process of laying out new routes.
        The political events of the last decades in Europe and Asia have opened new opportunities to have a different perspective of transportation links between these continents. Vast territory of Russia, dividing western countries from their occidental partners, appears to be the most promising from the point of view of organising transit traffic, or in other words for establishing transport corridors for goods and passengers. This is a well remembered fact both by the State Governments and the business community, who repeatedly told us, using this magazine as a venue for disclosing their ideas, what the best way is to utilise geographical location, economy and scientific - technological potential of various countries who are ready to join their efforts and make the continents closer. It is not surprising that St. Petersburg turns out to be one of the centres on the cross-roads of major routes, those that are functional already and those that are being planned.
        In fact the most topical problems that have been on the Agenda of various transport forums attempted to get answers to the questions in what way it is possible to use traditional routes and cargo traffic of different countries to set up a common transportation system, what the contribution of the states with different economies might be and what the benefits such a common transportation system may bring them, what political, financial, scientific and technological as well as legal issues should be considered as the first priority ones, since the process of such system development has already started.
        The Northern Sea Route has already been navigated by ship convoys for many decades. Today this route is opened not only to Russian companies delivering supplies to the Arctic settlements and industrial settlements. The high-latitude route from Europe to Asia and from Asia to Europe might turn out to be much more profitable and safer than via Suez Canal. This proposal to navigate the Northern Sea Route has already been discussed by international carriers of different countries. Less "exotic" but also economically viable are the routes between West and East via Siberia, Russian Far East, the Lower Volga and Don, as well as Kazakhstan... No doubt there will be competition between the routes in their development, though up-to-date means of communications and logistics will be able to cope with multitude of various problems and will allow to manage the traffic efficiently.
        The named and other projects need a lot of funds to be implemented which is not surprising that they make the states think of co-operation. This is another proof that the transport processes will continue to be part and parcel of geopolitical development. The city of St. Petersburg has a very special place in this process. Not only as a large industrial and research centre, where international meetings of the transport experts have become a regular event. But the city and its environs are the transportation hub of the North -West Russia, where goods are coming from the West and the East. It is a true "window on Europe" opened by Peter the Great. Though today the "window" has grown to become a "wide opened gate" in both directions.