Austrian rail freight operator Rail Cargo Group recently launched two new connections from Munich, in southern Germany, and from Tekirdag, in northwestern Turkey. The centre of this initiative is Curtici, in western Romania, as the two new services are Munich-Curtici and Curtici-Tekirdag.

In other words, Curtici becomes the RCG gateway to connect Turkey and Germany. The company said that Tekirdag is “a key transshipment point for transit and the flow of traffic between Western Europe and Turkey”. More seamless connectivity to Turkey can now be expected also from Belgium. This is because, the frequency of the RCG service connecting the Romanian city with Genk, in Belgium, is also being increased from three to five roundtrips per week and is now open for non-cranable semi-trailers.

Improving the rail links between Europe and Turkey might also be fruitful for Eurasian transport along the Middle Corridor. For example, this month the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, running through Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, is expected to restart operations after a major upgrade. With the new connections and the already existing ones from Budapest and Bratislava to Istanbul, RCG seems to be willing to play an important role along this axis. This is especially true considering that the company also added destinations in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to its network.

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