Logistics II Professor: Andrew Lee Davis Landbridges as an alternative for intermodal transport Tuesday February 18 2014 Daniela Martnez

Jmenez A00396100 Yoloxchitl Ramos Cornejo A00396356 Edgar Espinoza Pulido A00397329

CAMPUS CENTRAL DE VERACRUZ Divisin de Negocios Departamento de Profesional

Calificacin:

Landbridges as an alternative for intermodal transport

Eurasian Landbridge Maps

Historical background The idea to link the Far East and Europe by rail started in 1916, with the construction of the Trans Siberian railway in Russia. It is the longest rail in the world, with a length of 9,200 km. At the beginning it was only used for inland transport, but in the 60s the Soviet Unions started offering a service for reaching Western Europe, which was called the Northern East-West Corridor or the Eurasian Landridge. However, in 1990, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and geopolitical instability shipping companies didnt see as an option the service of this corridor and so the idea of using it as a transcontinental route was abandoned. After that, in the 21st century, the interest on this bridge resurged due to the

booming of the European-Asian trade and the increasing pressure to transport containerized freight over long distances, on the least time possible. So that is how the Trans Siberian Railway was linked with the Trans China Railway and it was better known as the Iron Silk Road, which was indeed in the past, the road for transporting silk over the continents.

Description of modes of transportation & intermodal nodes There are five main sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Northern Corridor: Europe through Trans-Siberian Railway to China TRACECA corridor: Europe to Central Asia via Caspian Sea Central Corridor: Through Southern Europe, Turkey and Iran to China Southern Corridor: through Iran via India and Pakistan to China New rail and ship corridor: Europe to Russia via southern ports of Iran, through Arabian Sea to India.

The Baku International Sea Trade Port o State owned o Main Cargo Terminal Dubendy Oil Terminal, and Ferry and Passenger Terminal: Transshipment of wagons, trucks and cars and the embarkation/disembarkation of passengers. o 2 km from Baku Railway Freight Station o Bilajar marshalling station is located 20 km from the station: Trains sorted, the import/export customs. Turkmenbashi port (Tuerkmenistan) o 22 km from the coast o 140 200m wide one-way vessel channel access with a draught of 5.1m o 6 oil berths o 4 dry cargo berths o a rail ferry berth which handles a service to Baku o several railway lines serving the port o There is a special area (4,000 m2) reserved for the processing and storage of containers o The Gypchak railway station (located 7 km from Ashgabat) is an

important Turkmen point for the dispatch of containers. It can operate 40 containers and therefore, has become one of the most important sorting stations in Central Asia within the Turkmenistan limits. The largest Uzbek intermodal terminals situated along the TRACECA Turkmenbashi route are: o Chukursay (maximum container storage capacity 600 TEU) o Tashkent-Tovarynyi (250 TEU) o Bukhara (260 TEU) and o Sergeli (592 TEU) The intermodal terminals in Uzbekistan are generally small, inefficient and handle a very light amount of traffic and the lack of multimodal terminals and equipment can be clearly observed in the country. Germany: Brest/Malaszewicze, the intermodal terminals at Dortmund, Hanover and the freight villages Berlin South Grobeeren, Berlin West Wustermark Poland: Poznan and Warsaw The mentioned intermodal terminals allow for the handling of significant cargoes within the catchment areas of the terminal locations and for cross docking operations, due to the terminals being located at or close to North South and East West traffic junctions and are connected by ring railroads or dense cargo rail networks, including shunting facilities. Budapest Sofia in Bulgaria is a big marshalling station and a container terminal where 20 and 40 containers are operated. The Capacity of the terminal is 100 TEU/day. A new important terminal on this route is the Yana intermodal terminal just outside Sofia. This 35,000TEU/year capacity terminal is fully private owned and operated and plays an important role in the intermodalisation of transport in and through Bulgaria. The change of the railway gauge is performed.at the Turkey Georgia border crossing.

 Belgrade and Istanbul Halkali are both important freight stations and are now being developed into modern intermodal transport Urumqi and Lanzhou. Both terminals are able to operate 20 and 40 TEU containers and also provide intermodal rail-road transport services. o Urumqi terminal: capacity to operate 1,300 TEU/day and a capacity to store 60 TEU containers. o Lanzhou terminal: operation capacity is 1,600 TEU/day with a storage capacity of 60 TEU containers. Dostyk railway station is the most important of the Kazakh intermodal terminals because it provides the connection of the Central corridor, TRACECA rail routes and Trans-Asian route to China. o The main operations performed at the Dostyk terminal are: the breaking up and making-up of trains. o Operation customs clearance o 5 types of yards and 7 types of transshipment points. The Poti Sea Port is the largest commercial port of the Republic of Georgia and handles liquid and dry bulk, ferries and containers. The port has dedicated ferry and container terminals. The railway operation inside the port area is managed by the Georgian railways. The distance between the port and the railway station is about 1 km.

 Distance & transport time

Route Narvik, Finland Urumqi, China Narvik, Finland Vainikkala, Finland Vainikkala, Finland Vostochny, Russia Hamburg Pekin China Western Europe Transport costs

Distance 7,200 km 1,600 km 9,870 km 10,000 km -

Time 7 days 2 days 9 days 15 days 14 to 45 days

Freight rates between China and Western Europe, vary depending on which route is going to be followed, but approximately the costs are around $2,000 USD $8,000 USD per container. Some examples for going from Urumqi, China to Berlin,

Germany, taking different routes arte the following: Railway Trans Siberia via Moscow Trans Siberia via Kazachstan TRACECA (Europe, Caucasus, Asia) Cost / TEU (USD) $3,903 $2,559 $6,773

Advantages The Eurasian land-bridge may offer various opportunities for U.S. companies, including but not limited to the following: investment, consulting, heavy machinery and equipment, up-to-date railroad technologies, telecommunication technologies, logistics technologies, supply and repair of rail equipment, bridge construction technologies, electric supplies for railroad construction, railroad safety and security equipment, terminal facilities in Europe and Korea, the delivery of goods from terminals in Eastern Europe to other European countries, freight-forwarding, and tourism (Kuzmichenko, 2002). The Transsiberian Railway capacity is at present 360,000 TEU (2010). An extension to 1 million TEU per year is possible. The Russian government aims to increase average speed to 50 km/h and to reduce the transit time on Russian territory from 10 days (present) to 7 days. The TransSib route is able to serve a niche market for high value and time sensitive cargo originating or destined from / for Chinese inland places, preferably in the Northern parts of China.

Recommended products/considerations High-value consignments are seen as particularly attractive for rail, and target industries include the automotive and electronics sectors. Some chemical products and dangerous goods may also be transportable by this mode.

Time advantages offer by rail service, are attractive for flows, which start or finish a long way from the coast. This land bridge also increases reliability, dependability and safety of cargo deliveries. It is important to know that there have been many delays due to the documentation process, so it is better to make sure everything is in order and complete, to avoid this type of inconvenient situations.

North American Landbridge Maps

Historical background The North american rail freight has experienced a growth since deregulation in 1980s (after the Staggers Act. The rail system started to develop since the arrival of the first colonizers. Nowadays the bridge includes rails from Canada and Mexico, creating the north American bridge. Description of modes of transportation & intermodal nodes There are three prevalent transborder corridors, which are: Toronto-Windsor-Detroit-Chicago-Laredo It is one of the densest and the most integrated. The end of the corridor is in Laredo, where about of the third part of the auto parts from Ontario, cross the border. The corridor also has an extension that reaches Winnipeg. Vancouver-Seattle-Los Angeles-San Diego-Tijuana It is located in the Pacific Northwest Montreal-New York This one also connects to the Quebec-Winsor corridor and to the Boston-

Washington. North America has just a few gateways and less developed ports, which makes it more difficult to the countries to take belong and take part into the important international shipping networks. Gateways in North America are just emerging, while in Europe they are fully developed. The main ports are: Laredo, Mexico Which is the major gateway in Mexico. And this one belongs to the mid-continent corridor. Lzaro Crdenas, Mexico This port is part of the intermodal development of Kansas City Southern de Mexico, which is a subsidiary of the Kansas City Southern. This is a rail-way company that has invested in the development of inland bridges.

Distance & transport time Corridor Toronto-WindsorDetroit-Chicago-Laredo Vancouver-Seattle-Los Angeles- San DiegoTijuana Montreal-New York Distance 3,009 km 2286 km Time 2 days 1 day

595 km

6-7 hours

Transport costs Even though there isnt clear information about costs, we found out that it is cheaper to ship from New York to Asia, crossing the Suez Canal, instead of using intermodal transportation to send the goods to the West Coast and ship them from

there. Using the first route the fee is around $3,000 USD per container while using the second one it is three times more expensive ($9,000 USD). Advantages As opposed to the Eurasian landbridge, the American landbridge has the advantage of providing a transcontinental link through a single country (Canada, USA or Mexico). Also the bridge connects three countries that have a Free Trade Agreement, if the members of this agreement would like to go to the next step of integration it would be easier. The population of any of the members could easily reach the border of another country, because the geographically speaking the countries are near. Recommended products/considerations Because of the proximity of the destinies, there arent any specific product recommendations. But something is important to recall is that all freight forwarding companies wont ship anywhere if the goods dont have an insurance. Even though the destination may be 40 minutes away, good require to have an insurance.

References Hofstra.edu. The North American Landbridge. Retrieved on February 14th, 2014, from THE GEOGRAPHY OF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/appl3en/usalandbridge.html Hofstra.edu. (2014). The Northern East-West Freight Corridor (Eurasian Landbridge). Retrieved on February 14th, 2014, from THE GEOGRAPHY OF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/conc5en/NEW_Corridor_Freig ht.html Jrgens, S. (February, 2008). Eurasian Land Bridge. Retrieved on February 14th, 2014, from German Chamber of Commerce: http://china.ahk.de/uploads/media/Presentation_by_Dr._Sebastian_Juergen s.pdf Joon-Kun Cho, J. (2007). THE EURASIAN LAND-BRIDGE AND ITS IMPACT ON GLOBAL LOGISTICS. Retrieved on February 14th, 2014, from Journal of Transportation Management: http://www.deltanualpha.org/pdfarticles/2007/Fall/cho.pdf Novikova, K., & Kennedy, R. (May, 2012). New Eurasian Land Bridge: An Evaluation of Efficiency Characteristics. Retrieved on February 14th, 2014,

from Global Journal of Business,Management and Accounting: http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/fullarticle/51404cafd0db8 Roest Crollius, A. (2012). Potential for Eurasia landbridge corridors. Retrieved on February 14th, 2014, from Improving European Railways: http://www.retrack.eu/downloadables/2012%20Conference/Adriaan%20Roe st%20Croellius%20Presentation%20Budapest.pdf Sellnick, O. (2011). Landbridge study finds significant potential. Railway Gazette International, 167(12), 30-32