BERLIN, July 18 (LPAC)--A top official of the German Railways told two LaRouche movement representatives that he was impressed with the detail of the Schiller Institute's Eurasian Landbridge map, and later used the map to point out where the most important work on rail infrastructure is now in progress.

The official, who is in charge of coordination with the Russians and Chinese, met with the LaRouche representatives in Berlin yesterday. The meeting took place in preparation for the LaRouche-affiliated Schiller Institute's international conference on the Eurasian Landbridge and Bering Strait link, to take place in mid-September.

The five rail freight container terminals which the Germans are now building in China are expected to vastly increase the container freight throughput from Asia to Europe, via a northbound rail line in China that connects to the Russian grid. But the Trans-Siberian route will not be the only one to benefit from that. A new rail line under construction will connect western China and eastern Kazakhstan--with its extensions into the rest of Central Asia, the Caspian and Black Sea regions, and on to Europe.

Otherwise, the German contribution to the Eurasian railroad project, as laid out in a recently-signed tripartite agreement between German, Russian and Chinese railway companies, is largely limited to improvements in already existing infrastructure.

The Russians are presently concentrating efforts on a project for a Russian-gauge, direct rail freight extension to the Austrian capital of Vienna, via Ukraine and Slovakia. That will make Vienna the western-most end of direct freight transport from Asia, on the Russian rail grid.

Unfortunately, the Russians have given up the perspective for a high-speed rail link to Germany, via Belarus and Poland, for the time being.

Once the time-absorbing procedures of customs at the borders between China and Russia, and between Eastern Europe and Russia are solved, current delays of several days on the Eurasian route will be eliminated, reducing the time for transfer of containers from China to Europe to no more than 10 days.