763 CETRA 2022 11-13 May 2022, Pula, Croatia 7 th International Conferenceon Road and Rail Infrastructure CHALLENGES FOR ORGANISATION OF CONTAINER TRAINS BETWEEN CHINA AND EUROPEAN UNION Borna Abramović, Kristijan Šugić University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, Croatia Abstract In the last few years, maritime transport between China and European Union has experi- enced huge capacity limitations and enormous delays. An alternative has emerged in rail- way transport. Currently, railway transport is less time consuming but is more expensive. So, there are optimisation challenges in organising transport of goods between China and European Union. Naturally, only goods in containers are transferred to railway transport as they will probably be able to bear the more expensive transport costs considering the reduc- tion in transport time. Since 2013, China has been implementing the Belt and Road Initiative strategic plan to create a single market. One part of the plan also refers to establishing land connections, mainly by railway, between China and the European Union. There are currently four main corridors: (1) Northern, (2) Mongolian, (3) Southern, and (4) the New Silk Road. The most significant challenges can be divided into technical and organisational. The main tech- nical challenge is the different track gauges that cause loading limits and loading gauge is- sues. The main organisational challenge is different customs procedures, operational rules, and administration tasks. This paper analyses the corridors used for railway transport of containers between Asia and European Union. We tackle issues regarding the technical and organisational obstacles. We have analysed container equipment, transloading equipment, railway vehicles, and terminals on the technical side. After that, we collected and analysed statistical data regarding traffic flows. We made a detailed analysis of the organisational process. According to our analysis, we have proposed organisational improvements that fa- cilitate the overall transport of containers between China and European Union. Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative, Asia, Europe, transport, containers, railway, organisation 1 Introduction Last 50 years, the most important transport mode between Asia and Europe has been mari- time transport. The overall trade growth has pushed maritime transport to the limits, espe- cially between China and the European Union. So, in the last few years, maritime transport has experienced huge capacity limitations and enormous delays. There was a necessity to find adequate transport mode substitution. A very logical solution with all advantages and disadvantages was railway transport. Historically the most famous land trip was made by Marco Polo between 1271 and 1295. Mar- co Polo was born in 1524 in Korčula, in thus years was part of the Republic of Venice and today in Croatia, and he passed away 1324 in Venice. In the 19 century, this route was named the Silk Route. In addition to the trade between East and West, cultures and diplomatic re- lations were exchanged. His travel experience was notable because his roommate from a prison cell, Rustichello da Pisa, wrote: “The Travels of Marco Polo”, in the Italian language DOI: https://doi.org/10.5592/CO/CETRA.2022.1400 INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRAFFIC PLANNING AND MODELLING