5 August 2014

Belarus might build high-speed railway

MINSK, 5 August (BelTA) – The Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus is holding consultations on the construction of a high-speed railway in Belarus, BelTA learnt from First Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Yevgeny Rogachev.

“The consultations also involve Russian partners,” he said. A task force was set up to work on this matter. It includes specialists from interested railway administrations.

BelTA reported earlier that a corridor for building a high-speed railway has been reserved in Belarus. According to Belarusian Transport and Communications Minister Anatoly Sivak, the corridor crosses the lands that will not be used for development purposes. “A high-speed railroad that will connect Moscow and Berlin via Minsk may be built in the future. The proposal to connect Minsk, Moscow, and Astana has been recently voiced, but it will be possible only if Chinese specialists decide to build a transcontinental railroad in the direction of Europe and this section will be part of it,” said the minister.

As an example Anatoly Sivak mentioned high-speed railways in China where rapid trains travel along flyovers. “I cannot say that we will build a railway from Brest to Minsk for trains that travel 300kmph. It won’t happen because there are not enough people to use the train at least once a day. For the project to pay back we would need 10-20 such trains,” pointed out the Transport and Communications Minister. In China, he went on saying, such trains connect metropolitan cities and do not stop in cities where fewer than 2 million people live.