Fast track service to China planned

  • 2011-10-12
  • From wire reports

VILNIUS - Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania Eligijus Masiulis and his Kazakh counterpart Berik Kamalijev discussed common issues of cooperation in the fields of rail, road transport and aviation, the Lithuanian Transport Ministry said, reports ELTA. “The priority field of cooperation between Lithuania and Kazakhstan consists in rail transport projects. For a more active participation in transportation of transit goods between Europe and Asia we are considering certain opportunities of arranging a route of container train shuttling between Klaipeda Seaport and Almata,” said Minister Masiulis.

According to the minister, the new railway project is intended to be called Saule - a word common to both languages of the cooperating countries. In Lithuanian this word means ‘the sun’ and in the Kazakh language the word means ‘ray of the sun.’
The planned route of the container train should go between Lithuania to Kazakhstan via the territories of Belarus and Russia. Later on it could be extended to China. In the European direction goods could be transported via Klaipeda Seaport to Scandinavia and other countries.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, on her first official visit to Kazakhstan, discussed the project with her Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Both agreed to put every effort to launch the project this year, extending the route up to China.

“The shuttle train reaching China in a week is a breakthrough in the cargo carriage market. It means not only ensured benefit for the countries’ economies within the forthcoming decades, but also the best offer for Europe and China in search for interconnections. This project can also become a driver for economic development of both countries, therefore we will support it on the highest level,” Grybauskaite underlined.
At present, rail cargoes from China to Europe by sea take 40 days, which can be reduced to 10 days upon launching the shuttle container train.

For the arrangement of the container train route between the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda and Almata, the successful experience in establishing the Viking train project between Klaipeda and the Ukrainian port of Ilyjchovsk could be used and followed.

The Lithuanian transport minister was also busy in talks with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the meeting of the Lithuanian-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission in Klaipeda. The two ministers had discussions with a focus on railway freight transport, the improvement of border crossing infrastructure and other issues of cooperation in the transport sector.
“Cooperation between Lithuania and Russia in the transport sector grows stronger and a number of relevant issues are successfully solved. Mutual reliance is increasing and useful bilateral solutions are found. Undoubtedly, these factors will boost the implementation of new transport projects and increase the flows of passengers and goods,” Masiulis told Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin.

At present, among the most important cooperation issues is the arrangement of the container train Merkurijus on the route Klaipeda/Kaliningrad-Moscow. Both countries agree that regarding the growth of container handling at Klaipeda and Kaliningrad ports it is necessary to improve the freight transportation conditions between the Baltic Sea ports and Russia. In the future, the route of this train will be extended to Kazakhstan.

Lithuanian, Russian and Belarusian railway companies take an active participation in the implementation of this project. It is planned that already this year a pilot passage of the train Merkurijus will be launched. Later, the trains will shuttle on a regular basis.

Shipping on the Curonian Lagoon, as well as in the Lithuanian and Russian Kaliningrad District inland waterways, was also discussed at the meeting. According to Minister Masiulis, the agreement signed at the meeting on the construction of bridges over the Nemunas River is among the positive examples promoting the implementation of other’s projects as well.