Influence of a potential railway line connecting the caspian sea with the black sea on the development of eurasian trade

This article deals with the current state of the transport of goods on East - West routes. It presents currently available options of carriage with mentioning the barriers and problems associated with the increasing Eurasian trade of goods carried along these corridors. Special attention was focused on costs and time analysis of exemplary freight of 40-feet container from China to Poland using alternative routes. It is determined that there are alternative possibilities that also include waterways. The main aim of this article is to present the potential demand related to the TRACECA major traffic flows passing through a corridor formed on one hand, in Western and Central Europe, and on the other - in Central and East Asia. As one of these possibilities a TRACECA corridor with the railway Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is considered together with SWOT analysis based on experts’ knowledge. The benefits of intermodal transport are obvious so the introduction of railway line connecting two seas, the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea, seems to be the crucial element in the cheapest solution.