Privileged transit traffic

Destination sign on a Transalpin EuroCity train

The privileged transit traffic or corridor traffic is traffic of one country across the territory of another country without usual customs and passport checks. The corresponding line of communication (usually a railway) is called the (privileged) traffic corridor and a train used in this kind of transit is called a corridor train (German: Korridorzug, Italian: Treno-corridoio).

Examples

A famous historical case of privileged transit was the arrival of Vladimir Lenin in a "sealed train car" from Germany to Russia in April 1917, amid World War I and Russian revolutionary activity.^[1]

Poland

• A 1931 agreement between Poland and Romania for railway traffic between parts of Poland across Romania, between Zaleszczyki and Jasienów Polny (both places are now (since 1945) in Ukraine).^[2]
• During the years between the world wars German trains could travel to and from East Prussia across the Polish Corridor with legally sealed doors, thereby relieving the passengers of obtaining Polish visas.

Russia

• Railway communication between the mainland Russia and its exclave Kaliningrad Oblast across Lithuania. They are not really privileged since normal passport and visa rules apply.

Germany

• Communication between East Prussia and mainland Germany across the Polish Corridor during the interwar period.
• Zittau–Görlitz from 1948, through Poland. Still in operation as of 2014, but from 2007 the Schengen Area removed all passport checks everywhere at this border.

Austria

• Trains between Salzburg and Kufstein operated as privileged transit until 1997 when the Schengen Area removed all passport checks everywhere at this border.
• After World War II a 'corridor-train' service was established between Lienz and Innsbruck using the Puster Valley railway; this services lost importance after the Schengen Agreement, and were discontinued after 2013.
• During the Cold War trains with locked doors were allowed to go from northern to southern Burgenland by traversing a small part of western Hungary.

Czech Republic

• Past WWII, in 1945, a 2.7 km part of the railway line Varnsdorf (CS) – Zittau (DE) – Liberec (CS) through Porajów become part of Poland and international traffic was stopped. In 1951, the Czechoslovak Railways restored traffic connection Varnsdorf – Liberec based on a treatment with GDR and Poland; ČSD trains had no stop at Polish and German area. In 1964, a new treatment was signed. Since 1972, GDR and Czechoslovakia restored also standard international transport at this line. Past broadening of "Schengen Area", Varnsdorf – Liberec trains stop also at German area, but traffic through the Polish section is still based on the transit treatment. The Polish side gets a charge from the Czech side but heavily neglects the Polish section and refuses proposals of Czech or German participation on the maintenance.^[3]

References

1. "Lenin returns to Russia from exile", History Channel
2. Poland and Romania: Convention of the Freedom of Transit by Rail from One Part of Polish Territory to Another(retrieved July 4, 20014)
3. Hrozí zastavení vlaků do Německa. Poláci se nemají k opravě trati, iDnes.cz, 15. 5. 2015