BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 8. Six working groups of experts have begun efforts to develop a multimodal Eurasian transport route (from China to Europe), with the main segment being the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor), a source in the Azerbaijani government told Trend.
According to the source, this extensive route will connect China, Central Asian countries, and Kazakhstan with the South Caucasus, Türkiye, and EU states.
"The foundation for this route is, of course, the Middle Corridor, which has been developing for 10 years. Based on the experience of identifying the TITR bottlenecks, a decision was made in September 2024 to create six working groups to promote the Eurasian transport route," the source reminded.
As the source explained, the working groups will have their noses to the grindstone, tackling tariffs, diving into digitalization, spinning their wheels on marketing and communications, keeping a watchful eye on monitoring, laying the groundwork for infrastructure, and navigating the legal maze.
Moreover, the source highlighted several bottlenecks during the operation of the TITR, including the insufficient number of feeder vessels in the Caspian Sea, delays in rolling stock operations, inadequate speed in providing fitting platforms (rail platforms for transporting large containers) to Caspian ports, delays in dispatching vessels to the Black Sea port of Poti, Georgia, and a lack of digitalization along the entire route.
"Additionally, the delivery of container cargo by sea from Poti port to Constanța port (Romania) is not fully established, which leads to such cargo being transshipped at the Turkish port of Ambarli," the source said.
The source also highlighted that ideally, transporting goods from Kazakhstan’s Altynkol (near the Chinese border) to Romania’s Constanța could take 17–20 days; in reality, it currently takes over a month.
"This situation is due to the multimodal nature of the route, which involves both rail and maritime transport. Coordination does not always proceed smoothly. The established working groups will consider these bottlenecks during their regular monitoring, the source added.
To note, Chinese shippers currently have an increased interest in sending cargo along the TITR and further to the EU.
In 2023, 2.7 million tons of cargo passed through the TITR; in 2024, the figure may exceed 4.2 million tons.
In the medium term, the route can provide transportation for 1,000 container block trains per year, which makes the development of the Eurasian transport route promising.