Head of Transportation Department of Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), Vuong Kha Son, on March 9 told the Vietnam News Agency that the General Director of the International Union of Railways (UIC) had just sent a letter to the railway’s members noticing UIC suspends membership of Russian and Belarusian railways in UIC activities. As such, Russian and Belarusian railways will not be able to participate in meetings, forums, platforms, fields, and working groups in accordance with UIC’s legislation or benefit from the Association’s services in the near future.
Therefore, international rail transport between Vietnam and Europe along the route through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Poland to Germany and Western European countries is likely to be affected if Polish railways stop operating across the border with the Belarusian railway.
It is reported that at the beginning of March 2022, Railway Transport and Trading Joint Stock Company (RATRACO) under the Vietnam Railways Corporation will organize a container train running directly from Danang to Europe. However, due to the war Russia invaded Ukraine, this plan is shelved.
On July 20, 2021, the Vietnamese railway industry organized the first container train to Belgium. Currently, RATRACO is maintaining about three container trains every week departing from Yen Vien station to Europe.
Previously, railways still operated international freight trains to transport goods to Europe, but in the form of consolidating containers to gathering stations in China and connecting to Chinese trains to continue to the delivery point in the form of a whole group of containers.
Statistics of the Vietnam Railway Corporation show that in 2021, the Vietnamese railway industry transported nearly 1.16 million tons of goods abroad, up 34% over the same period last year.
Translated by Thoibao.de from the original source: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/vn-railways-corporation-shelves-plan-to-begin-freight-service-to-europe-via-china-in-march-03092022092629.html
