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The forum of railway companies representatives from EU and Russia starts today in Vienna. The main agenda is the new Eurasian route that includes construction of the Broad-gauge track from Kosice, Slovakia to Austria, RIA Novosti reports.
Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Austria participate in this project. It is planned to locate a logistical link in Austria if the 400km railroad to be built.
The project was called “Broad-gauge” because the official width of the railroad track in Russia, CIS countries, Baltics, Mongolia and Finland is 1520 mm,while the regular track width in Europe is 1435 mm.
At this moment the the Broad-gauge project is still at the pre-production stage. The developers try to find how to reduce the high costs ($6.5 billion).
The project realization would help Russia to transport the basic streams of cargoes from Asia to Europe, which would save substantial amount of time and money. According to the Austrian ministry, the creation of this railroad would bring 127,000 jobs to Austrians.
Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology Norbert Hofer is going to introduce the Broad-gauge rail line to the Austrian Council of Ministers. In case of approval Austrian authorities would look more closely into details, including financial issues.
Russkiy Mir
