Trans Asian Railway: Containerized Trade Opportunities and Challenges for Central and East European Landlocked Markets

Since the 2000s, Trans-Asian Railway (TAR), including the links of Trans China Railway (TCR) and Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR), started to serve as inland transport routing alternative to the predominant container shipping on the maritime Royal Route (RR) between Far East Asia and Europe. However, once aiming on further integration of all the segments in order to speed up transit times, reduce high transport costs compared to maritime RR, and improve service reliability, these complex Eurasian intermodal transport chains face challenges. Based on qualitative research with semi-structured in depth interviews of key actors in the Czech Republic, the paper examines the perception of container inland transport chains of a diverse range of market players that are active in such a landlocked market in Central and East Europe (CEE). The research questions whether competitive pricing, service time reliability and transit time determine changes in service supply by freight forwarders. It investigates the position taken by their customers and shipping lines in regard to TAR links. Although the empirical evidence is limited to a sample of market players in the Czech Republic, the results support valuable conclusions for importers demanding all-in transport services from Far East Asia to CEE landlocked hinterland markets.