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Turin will be the starting point of the “peace metro”, the initiative aiming at realising the first high-speed railway network linking the main cities of the METR (Middle East, Europe, Turkey, Russia) region to Beijing. Today the first “Railway Silk Road Cities Forum” has been held in Turin, organised by Mir Initiative with the support of the City Hall of Turin and the National Association of Italian Municipalities. The project supported by the Forum aims at extending the European high-speed transport corridors towards the East to the Chinese capital city, and towards the South-East in the Middle Eastern areas currently hosting cruel political and religious conflicts. When the project will be realised, it will be possible to cover the 10,500 km distance between Turin and Beijing in less than two days on a high-speed train.

“The institutional purpose of the Forum – explained Ernest Sultanov, MIR Initiative coordinator, who introduced the meeting – is to involve the mayors of the cities in the main junctions of the future high-speed railway. The culture of physical mobility as a factor of social mobility and development has to be understood first of all by people, and has to be used as an instrument to put pressure on governments to realize this sort of peace metro.”

The Forum coordinators have already published the White Book “Metro of the METR” that includes contributions and ideas to enhance mobility between Eurasian countries, articles by experts and managers of the main international transport and infrastructure companies, representing an overall turnover of 700 billion Euros. The White Book promotes the concept of the New Railway Silk Road that will create a high-speed connection from China to Portugal, through the region including Middle East, Europe, Turkey and Russia (METR) and represents the theoretical starting point of the future intercontinental metro.   

The Forum has created three working committees with different areas of expertise and responsibilities: the first is concentrated on infrastructural development, the second on investments and the third is composed by the Cities representatives. The committees will bring forward concrete initiatives, including prefeasibility study of the future Eurasian high-speed metro and report the results to the next meeting of the Forum. Its purpose is to realize in a timeframe of 2040-2050 the intercontinental “metro”, with the connection between Europe and China through Russia as one of its main corridors. The path stretches along the main line Beijing-Astana-Kazan-Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw-Lodz-Berlin-Rostock and is connected to the existing European corridors.

Turin has hosted from the beginning the Railway Silk Road Cities Forum and has been chosen as its first permanent headquarter, potentially followed by Moscow and Kazan in Russia, Beijing and Chengdu in China.

Mayor Piero Fassino has highlighted the importance of dialogue between countries as an essential factor to build international stability, and has expressed his gladness that the meeting of the Railway Silk Road Cities Forum is held in Turin: “The main role represented by the cities in promoting development projects like this encourages connections that make exchange between peoples and cultures easier. The transport networks connecting Continents are fundamental and represent the basis for relations between the peoples.”

The first meeting of the Forum has also been attended by the mayors and representatives of Arad(Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Genoa(Italy), Kazan (Russia),Lodz (Poland), Milan(Italy),Rostock(Germany). The Minister of infrastructure and transport Graziano Delrio has been the messenger of Italy’s consent to the initiative. Former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mr.Igor Ivanov together with former Secretary General of the Arab League Mr.Amr Moussa welcomed the constitution of the Forum.

Furthermore the discussion sessions have been attended by the politicians and business leaders, including the Vice President of Italian Railways Alberto Mazzola, the Head of the Lyon-Turin high-speed project Mario Virano and the General Manager of CREC, the main Chinese railway construction company Yao Guiquing.

Mayor Fassino has signed the Forum principles and objectives in the Turin Charter together with the representatives of Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation and Hungary.