By F. Zois
State-run rail operator Trainose continues to incur damages from ongoing employee strikes and work stoppages, with Chinese multinational Cosco - a major customer - reportedly in talks with the rail company in the former Yugoslav Republic of Yugoslavia (fYRoM) for an agreement that bypasses the former.
The report shows the increasingly complicated situation in Greece’s mixed transports sector, days after a successful bid (45 million euros) was submitted by Italy’s Ferrovie Dello Stato for Trainose and roughly a month after Cosco’s landmark deal for the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) was ratified by Parliament.
Unions representing workers for Trainose have continued the nearly month-long industrial actions, aimed to block the rail operator’s privatization and, at the same time, to pressure the state into signing a new collective bargaining agreement.
A direct agreement between Cosco and the fYRoM railways company would translate into a yearly loss exceeding five million euros for Trainose.
Greek diplomatic sources in Skopje have reportedly sent the foreign ministry in Athens a detailed dispatch citing the upcoming agreement between Cosco and fYRoM rail operator MZ. The agreement would entail the transport of cargo shipped from the port of Piraeus to the Greek border overland by truck, and then onward to western Europe via the fYRoM rail line.
The same report notes that the Chinese side is also seriously considering the building of a logistics hub in the neighboring country to handle its Europe-bound cargo.
The continuing strikes have generated increased concern in the neighboring country’s business community as well.
According to sources that spoke with “N”, written protests have been directed at Greece’s relevant ministry as well as to the privatization fund by international shipping companies, who charge that their goods are being depreciated from the long wait on Greece’s rail tracks.
The “comatose” situation of Greece’s soon-to-be privatized rail operator is also viewed as a direct obstacle to the further development of a series of recent Sino-Greek commercial agreements.
