On February 20 - 22, 2018 in Vienna, the capital of Austria, the international business forum "Strategic Partnership 1520: Central Europe" was held. The purpose of the forum is to coordinate the efforts of players in the Eurasian transport market to form an integral infrastructure of international transport corridors, to create the most comfortable environment for the movement of passengers and goods.
The Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation M. Yu. Sokolov, General Director - Chairman of the Board of JSC Russian Railways O.V. Belozerov, General Director of Austrian Railways JSC Andreas Matte and other heads of railway administrations and transport companies from 29 countries.
The Forum was attended by Dmitry Viktorovich Golubovsky, General Director of PJSC Lengiprotrans (part of the 1520 Group of Companies). Opening the forum, the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation stressed that at present it is especially important to determine the competitive advantages of the railways, which will make it possible to make a leap forward in the coming years.
The idea of extending the “1520 gauge” to the center of Europe seems to be not just reasonable, but an objective necessity in this competitive struggle with other modes of transport. Solving this problem will contribute to the development of the entire Eurasian transport corridor, which for the most part passes through the territory of the Russian Federation, - said Maxim Sokolov.
The forum participants considered the mechanisms for increasing the throughput of the East-West corridor, the prospects for reducing the cost of land freight and the formation of through tariffs, ways to reduce customs barriers and increase the ability to integrate the 1520 mm and 1435 mm railway gauge.
Within the framework of the forum, 5 agreements were signed. One of them is an addition to the cooperation agreement between Russian Railways and Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). The document updated the cooperation agreement of May 19, 2011. According to O.V. Belozerova, Austrian Railways is one of the leading partners of Russian Railways in Europe. “The agreement signed today creates a good basis for further joint work in the development of infrastructure, passenger and freight traffic, innovative technologies, as well as human resources,” said Oleg Belozerov.
