ST PETERSBURG, 17 July (BelTA) – The common transport space between Belarus and Russia should not rely on last century's technologies. State Secretary of the Union State of Belarus and Russia Grigory Rapota made the relevant statement at a session of the interparliamentary commission for interregional cooperation of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus and the Federation Council of Russia on 17 July, BelTA has learned.
The official said: “We and the transport ministries have yet to formulate the term to describe the common transport space. We decided to formulate this question for our own purposes. As a result we arrived at the conclusion that the common transport space cannot rely on technologies of the 19th century or the 20th one. Unfortunately, our transport industry matches exactly those standards.”
Grigory Rapota explained that it takes about 14 hours to travel from Minsk to St Petersburg (about 800km) by rail while back in 1882 a Russian traveler recalled he went from London to Glasgow (about 600km) by rail within nine hours. Travelling from Moscow to Minsk by rail is not fast either and takes roughly 10 hours, Grigory Rapota noted.
Thus, Belarus and Russia are stuck in the past as far as the development of transportation is concerned. “The situation is roughly the same on motorways,” he added.
According to Grigory Rapota, it is necessary to develop fast routes in transportation by rail and by road. The matter has been discussed for quite a long time already and is a development priority of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Yuri Vorobyev noted that senators have no authority in this field, however, they can expedite the making of the necessary political decisions to address the problem.
