Much has been said for many years about a railway link between China and Europe, but products are still largely carried by ship to Europe. But further delay may result in Poland being outstripped by the competition. Then the planned flow of containers to cover the costs of constructing the infrastructure required by such transport will go elsewhere. We frequently believe in the delusion that Poland enjoys an exceptional position, though meeting points of the eastern wide-gauge railway tracks with the European network also exists in Slovakia and Hungary. Preparations are also proceeding there to start regular railway container links with China..
The first container train between China and Sławków Euroterminal in Silesia where the Polish section of the wide-gauge track ends, arrived in May 2007, the transport being commissioned by the Railog AG German group which is owned by Schenker AG, one of Europe’s largest transport and logistics companies. Early this year that company had already started to run container trains from China to Finnish ports. Last year, the number of containers transhipped in Sławków rose tenfold with further companies expressing interest in transhipping in the Euroterminal. That is why it is presently being enlarged to triple its transhipping possibilities.
Eurasia Rail Logistics, an international company, intends to open Asia-Europe railway cargo transport in the near future. Its shareholders are to be four national railway carriers: Deutsche Bahn, PKP Cargo (Poland) and also Russian and Belarus Railways. With that in mind, PKP Cargo intends to take over a minority package of shares of the Metallurgy Industry Central Supply Unit, which will allow that company to become the co-proprietor of Euroterminal in Sławków. The project for PKP to take over shares in the Metallurgy Industry Supply Unit may be recognised as an attempt for a hostile take over of the whole company and to become a monopolist in access to Euroterminal. That would conflict with the EU principle of keeping railway transporters separate from the infrastructure, Terminals should be accessible to all carriers, since that is one of the essential factors resulting in the real growth of the railway transport market.