Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”

CR Express containerised rail transport between Europe and China is a flagship project of China’s “Belt and Road”. Yet operational and financial details of the project remain scarce. Due to poor governance and logistics transparency, the actual quantity of containers and goods transported is essenti...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	P. Bucsky, T. Kenderdine
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN RU
Publicado:	MGIMO University Press 2020
Materias:	transport policy economic geography political geography geoeconomic policy railway infrastructure containerised transport industrial policy eurasian economic integration cr express belt and road International relations JZ2-6530
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a4040b45f18241c1b3a81d4e541d3c95
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:a4040b45f18241c1b3a81d4e541d3c95
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a4040b45f18241c1b3a81d4e541d3c952021-11-23T14:50:42ZIs the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”2071-81602541-909910.24833/2071-8160-2020-5-74-168-193https://doaj.org/article/a4040b45f18241c1b3a81d4e541d3c952020-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.vestnik.mgimo.ru/jour/article/view/1856https://doaj.org/toc/2071-8160https://doaj.org/toc/2541-9099CR Express containerised rail transport between Europe and China is a flagship project of China’s “Belt and Road”. Yet operational and financial details of the project remain scarce. Due to poor governance and logistics transparency, the actual quantity of containers and goods transported is essentially unknowable. The authors doubt the efficacy of the CR Express intercontinental rail system and test its real and possible capacity throughputs. In the article they compare China public media statements with European Union statistics and reveal discrepancies between the number of trains supposedly departing China and the number of trains arriving in the European Union. This article provides numerous data sources and estimates on China–Europe rail freight traffic and demonstrates that the actual transported quantity of goods is probably lower than anticipated or reported. The article also analyses the political development of the CR Express rail freight system and China’s wider “Transport Power” policy. It concludes that while the political concept of the CR Express rail freight system is progressive, and the economic development of creating new cumulative causation systems is theoretically possible, that the evidence for actual economic use is underwhelming. This research helps European Union, Russian, and Central Asian policymakers better assess the viability of participating in the continued rollout of China’s CR Express intercontinental rail freight system. The authors warn that while the CR Express system has potential to be an economic good for Central Asian development it exposes the Eurasian economies to China's political and financial risk. For China the CR Express system fulfils only geopolitical and geoeconomic functions, and ultimately participation in the policy is of minimal utility to European Union economies.P. BucskyT. KenderdineMGIMO University Pressarticletransport policyeconomic geographypolitical geographygeoeconomic policyrailway infrastructurecontainerised transportindustrial policyeurasian economic integrationcr expressbelt and roadInternational relationsJZ2-6530ENRUVestnik MGIMO-Universiteta, Vol 13, Iss 5, Pp 168-193 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN RU
topic	transport policy economic geography political geography geoeconomic policy railway infrastructure containerised transport industrial policy eurasian economic integration cr express belt and road International relations JZ2-6530
spellingShingle	transport policy economic geography political geography geoeconomic policy railway infrastructure containerised transport industrial policy eurasian economic integration cr express belt and road International relations JZ2-6530 P. Bucsky T. Kenderdine Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
description	CR Express containerised rail transport between Europe and China is a flagship project of China’s “Belt and Road”. Yet operational and financial details of the project remain scarce. Due to poor governance and logistics transparency, the actual quantity of containers and goods transported is essentially unknowable. The authors doubt the efficacy of the CR Express intercontinental rail system and test its real and possible capacity throughputs. In the article they compare China public media statements with European Union statistics and reveal discrepancies between the number of trains supposedly departing China and the number of trains arriving in the European Union. This article provides numerous data sources and estimates on China–Europe rail freight traffic and demonstrates that the actual transported quantity of goods is probably lower than anticipated or reported. The article also analyses the political development of the CR Express rail freight system and China’s wider “Transport Power” policy. It concludes that while the political concept of the CR Express rail freight system is progressive, and the economic development of creating new cumulative causation systems is theoretically possible, that the evidence for actual economic use is underwhelming. This research helps European Union, Russian, and Central Asian policymakers better assess the viability of participating in the continued rollout of China’s CR Express intercontinental rail freight system. The authors warn that while the CR Express system has potential to be an economic good for Central Asian development it exposes the Eurasian economies to China's political and financial risk. For China the CR Express system fulfils only geopolitical and geoeconomic functions, and ultimately participation in the policy is of minimal utility to European Union economies.
format	article
author	P. Bucsky T. Kenderdine
author_facet	P. Bucsky T. Kenderdine
author_sort	P. Bucsky
title	Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
title_short	Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
title_full	Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
title_fullStr	Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
title_full_unstemmed	Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”
title_sort	is the iron silk road really so important? rail freight use on china’s “silk road economic belt”
publisher	MGIMO University Press
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/a4040b45f18241c1b3a81d4e541d3c95
work_keys_str_mv	AT pbucsky istheironsilkroadreallysoimportantrailfreightuseonchinassilkroadeconomicbelt AT tkenderdine istheironsilkroadreallysoimportantrailfreightuseonchinassilkroadeconomicbelt
_version_	1718416666945126400

Is the Iron Silk Road Really So Important? Rail Freight Use on China’s “Silk Road Economic Belt”

Ejemplares similares