In the panel “Future of Railway” UTIKAD requested more focus on freight from TCDD.

Kayıhan Özdemir Turan, Board Member of UTIKAD, Association of International Forwarding and Logistics Service Providers, stated that TCDD must give a similar importance to freight as given to high speed trains in his speech in the panel “Future of Railway” at Istanbul Chamber of Commerce.

He also told that the targets for freight will not be easy to achieve, and stated the list of demands for freight:

• Freight projects must have priority.
• TCDD must stay as operator, not become a logistics service provider.
• COTIF/CIM must be legally accepted in domestic transports as well.
• Wagons must move 400 km/day for competition with trucks.
• Average movement of wagons must increase from 30k km to 150k km.
• Private companies must be supported for railway investments by government.
• The support for TCDD Tasimacilik AS which will last 2.5 years more must not be extended.
• Domination of market by foreign operators must be prevented.
• Min 20 trains/year term for special block train pricing must be lifted.
• As in Europe, special price should be given for group wagons.
• The chargable weight must be decrased from 7 to/axle to 5 to/axle to attract light goods.