Turkey expressed on Wednesday its eagerness to become an artery in the East-West railway route.

- 21 / 05 / 2008 10:20

Turkey expressed on Wednesday its eagerness to become an artery in the East-West railway route.

The railways administration of Turkey proposed the International Union of Railways (UIC) to make Turkey be the main route of the East-West corridor in order to take more share from the rail freight worth 75 billion USD carried by the Asia-Europe railway line.

The UIC is the worldwide organisation for international cooperation among railways and promotion of rail transport at a global level.

Founded in 1922, it currently gathers 191 members on all 5 continents, among them railways, rail operators, infrastructure managers, railway service providers, public transport companies.

"Turkey has proposed the UIC to become the main route of the rail freight market in East-Middle East-West corridor," Suleyman Karaman, director general of the Turkish State Railways Administration, said during an UIC meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

Karaman said that other regional countries, particularly Russia and Iran, were competing with each other to get more share from this market.

The union would decide on Turkey's proposal no later than the following year, Karaman also said.