Japan turns to Trans-Siberian Railway to test potential connection with Russia, China & S. Korea
Tokyo is planning to conduct a logistics test using the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway and a ferry line to join four countries, including Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea, a Japanese official said Tuesday.
The major goal of the project is to create a new transportation corridor by including the Chinese province of Jilin to a ferry line that currently connects the Russian city of Vladivostok, South Korean Donghae, and Japan’s Sakaiminato, according to Nogava Satoshi, vice governor of Japan’s smallest prefecture, Tottori.
The official stressed that the logistic corridor may potentially include other territories.
In April, the ferry, dubbed DBS, called at the Russian port of Zarubino, and transported cargo freighted there to China, Satoshi said, adding that the delivery was significantly faster. However, he said the parties still have to solve some problems identified during the testing delivery.
Earlier this year, Japan and Russia conducted test shipping of Japanese goods to Russia using a sea link and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Russia’s transport artery, which is 9,289 kilometers (5,772 miles) long, has great development potential for mutual trade between the two nations, according to Japan’s Deputy Minister of State Lands, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Toshihiro Matsumoto.
Japan and Russia currently trade goods using sea and air routes. It takes up to 62 days to ship freight from Japan to Russia via the Indian Ocean. Using air-cargo makes freight transport much faster, but is still cost-intensive. The new freight route via the railway will significantly cut transportation time between the two countries and could reduce costs by up to 40 percent.
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