Turkey upgrades rail freight network, eyeing more traffic from China

Turkey is making further inroads in its efforts to become the main link in Asia-Europe rail freight, as more Chinese volumes pivot away from Russia towards the Middle Corridor.

China was eyeing investing $60bn to help Turkey, straddling Asia and Europe, modernise its rail infrastructure – including plans to further electrify the network, build new domestic routes, and extend its high-speed network.

As part of that transformation, Turkey’s transport ministry confirmed completion of a tunnel in Istanbul, with Railfreight reporting it would form part of a high-speed link with Bulgaria, which when complete would halve freight transit times between the two countries, from eight hours to three and a half, with annual throughput of 33.5m tonnes.

Late last year, minister of transport Abdulkadir Uraloglu said the intention was to add 8,554 km to Turkey’s high-speed network by 2053.

The government is also aiming to bolster the number of logistics facilities – ports and warehousing and industrial sites – in an effort to expedite deliveries across Europe.

However, with more and more China-Europe volumes flowing through the Middle Corridor, at the expense of Russian rail freight, Turkey wants to position itself as a gateway within the Middle Corridor.

Central in this effort has been the participation of Kazakh national carrier KTZ, one of the main beneficiaries of the huge loss of business suffered by its opposite number in Russia, RZD.

Announcing a 13% uptick in volumes, KTZ said yesterday that, together with China’s Urumqi Railway, it would be doubling cross-border services.

KTZ said: “The parties agreed to double the number of trains from Kazakhstan to China via the Altynkol-Khorgos border crossing from eight to 15 trains a day from 1 March and, via the Dostyk-Alashankou border crossing, from 14 to 28 trains a day from 1 July.”

It added that this would “significantly increase export potential and open up additional opportunities for domestic producers”.

And, following a $660m injection from the World Bank, hopes are high that Turkey will be able to hoover-up some of volumes destined for Europe via its looming new high-speed network, set to reduce transit times and better compete with th higher-polluting airfreight options.