During the EU Financial Period 2014-2020, Rail Baltica and the electrification of lines part of IXB international corridor will be Lithuania’s largest investment projects, Vice-Minister of Transport Arijandas Šliupas said. “Rail Baltica”, the European standard gauge, will provide access to Warsaw, Krakow and other Western European countries.
Lithuania intends to develop railway transport as the backbone of its transport system and economy development. “We seek to ensure smooth interaction between various modes of transport, in order to make our country a part of important logistics chain in the route of the Silk Road i.e. from Nordic countries via Klaipėda port and along the rail to China and Central Asian countries. In addition, Lithuania aims to become China’s center for freight distribution to Northern and Western Europe (HUB)” Šliupas said.
For transport development, a contract of freight forwarding was signed with four Turkish logistics companies that are expected to help attract new clients and additional freight volume for container train “Viking”. A meeting among container train “Viking” partners is expected to be held in April in Azerbaijan, a country which intends to join the project as well. Another country, Kazakhstan, is also interested in the project. Finally, Swedish national rail freight service provider “Green Cargo” is also planning to become a member of “Viking” already this year.
Furthermore, PKP Cargo started to work in Lithuania. The company’s goods trains operate in Lithuania 3 times a week since February.
In addition, a passenger train on the route Kaunas-Bialystok in planned to be launched this year.
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