(source: SITA)
It was a big celebration when the first trial train with containers from China arrived at the cargo port in Bratislava last November. The train’s 11,000-km journey from the Chinese town of Dalian via Russia and the Ukraine to Slovakia lasted only 17 days. It brought textile and industrial components and showed the prospects of the route. The plan was to dispatch firstly one and later two trains per week, in total as many as 500 such trains this year.
“To date this has been the only train from China that ended in Slovakia,” said Helena Tomková, spokesperon of the Bratislava cargo port Slovenská Plavba a Prístavy (SPaP), as cited by the Sme daily.
Dana Meager, state secretary of the Slovak Finance Ministry and governmental plenipotentiary for Silk Road, explains that there are no trains from Slovakia to China because the Chinese planning commission has not approved this. It approved the schedule of trains for 2018 even in September.
