Abstract

It has been a decade since the President Xi Jinping officially announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), commonly known also as One Belt One Road (OBOR). Defined as the largest political infrastructural project, BRI has not equivalent that rivals its scale, ambition and commitment. As a combination of two existing routes, the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the 21st Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI), the project primarily aims at connecting three continents – Asia, Europe and Africa – through a number of infrastructure investments along both the maritime and land routes. The present research is articulated in three main parts: opened by a descriptive introduction that frames the BRI, the first paragraph focuses on one of the most important branches of the project that is the railway line linking China and Europe. The second paragraph proceeds with a comparative analysis, conducted with the main purpose of detecting the pros and cons of each freight transportation mode, namely sea, air and railway. The analysis provides information about time and costs, including an investigation on the correlation between the transport mode and the category of goods shipped. In the end, the paper investigates the possible impact that the China-EU railway development could bring on Italy. The strategic geographical position and the crucial role within the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) provides Italy the opportunity to benefit from the development of China-EU railway. Italy geographical location and its leading position in the machinery sector will be evaluated as two potential strengths to enhance within the emerging China-EU railway.