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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 23:32

Belarusian Railways to promote piggyback transportation in Lithuania

BC, Vilnius, 11.04.2014.Print version
Belarusian Railways is set to promote piggyback transportation, Head of the transportation service of Belarusian Railways Ivan Voitekhovich said in Vitebsk on Wednesday, reports LETA/ELTA, referring to BelTA.

"It is a new and promising type of transportation and Belarusian Railways is determined to promote it. The first steps were made in 2013 when Belarusian Railways together with Lithuanian Railways started implementing a piggyback transportation project. The Neman piggyback train started running on the Kolyadichi-Vilnius/Kaunas-Kolyadichi route in November 2013. Since the project was launched, 17 piggyback trains travelled from Belarus to Lithuania and 40 trains from Lithuania to Belarus," said Voitekhovich.

 

The route of the Neman piggyback train might be extended to Klaipeda and Kaliningrad. Intermodal transportation to Poland is also on the agenda. One of the advantages of the new type of transportation is fast border crossing and customs clearance. The time of travelling (including border crossing) is 11 hours.

 

"The information about piggyback transportation service offered by Belarusian Railways is available in the Internet. We informed all cargo carriers about our new service," noted Voitekhovich. He pointed to the lack of enthusiasm on the part of carriers. Drivers do not mind spending time on the border as they get paid for their time. However, cargo owners will greatly benefit from piggyback transportation, as it is faster and cheaper.

 

Vitebsk is hosting a meeting of heads of transportation services of railway companies from the CIS member states on 9-10 April. Taking part in the meeting are over 50 delegates from Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Uzbekistan, as well as Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The participants of the meeting are expected to reconcile their positions on various aspects of railway service development, including new forms of transportation management, increase in transit and export/import transportation and observance of timetables.






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