For the new Trans-Caspian international transport route to be competitive, compared to the existing land route through Russia and Belarus, participating countries need to adopt a number of measures to reduce the cost and time of delivery of goods. Yurii Merkulov, the head of the commercial department of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, announced this during the international forum "Connecting Europe and Asia: a New Look at Creation of a System of Transcontinental Routes" in Odessa, the CFTS correspondent reports.

According to Merkulov, the necessary measures include reduction of the travel time of trains on this route from the proposed 11 days to 9 days; reduction of the cost of delivering cargoes on the route by common agreement (it currently exceeds the cost of the route that passes through Russia and Belarus); identification of the train (route) operators in the participating countries; coordination of the movement of trains with ferry lines, etc.

"For its part, Ukraine has already drafted a timetable for a train notionally consisting of 57 railcars, taking account of additions at the Odessa-Zastava and Kazatin-1 train stations, and traveling at a speed of 880 kilometers per day," said Merkulov.

The prospects of the Trans-Caspian international transport route project were the main topic of discussion at the international forum.