Ukraine’s national authorities plan to acquire 1,000 containers as part of the development of Ukrzaliznytsia intermodal transport.
Ukrainian Railways intends to acquire 500 twenty-foot open top containers for transport of bulk cargo, in particular ore, and 500 twenty-foot bulk containers for the transport of agricultural products, in particular grain.
Ukrainian Railways plans to sign a direct agreement following a preliminary process to analise the proposals submitted by the rolling stock manufacturers and taking into account the peculiarities of public procurement law. The preliminary collection of commercial proposals is carried out through SmartTender.
The containers should be manufactured by the end of the year and delivered to Ukrzaliznytsia in the first quarter of 2024. For equal conditions to all potential suppliers, among the basic conditions of supply, the Kyiv-Lisky freight station, in Kyiv, is defined as the place of delivery of containers.
Currently, about 40% of cargo transport by rail in Europe is carried out in containers and in Ukraine this figure reaches only 3%. The demand for this transport services is constantly growing with intermodal trains running to and from the seaports of the Baltic countries.
Under the plans for the development of Ukrzaliznytsia intermodal transport, together with LTG Cargo a new route from Klaipeda to Kyiv via Kaunas has been successfully tested on November 17, 2023. The train test was implemented two months after the official meeting between the representatives of LTG Cargo and Ukrzaliznytsia, which took place in September 2023.
“Working with Ukraine, providing clients with interesting solutions for cargo transport between Lithuania and Ukraine is always in the centre of our attention. Together with our partners, we are constantly looking for ways to facilitate and promote more efficient movement of cargo between countries,” Egle Šime, the CEO of LTG Cargo said.
The test journey of the intermodal train took 9 days, during which all technological processes were carried out. In the future, the planned duration of the route will be 5 days. As part of the testing of the route, semi-trailers with cargo were delivered to the Kaunas intermodal terminal from the Klaipeda seaport, where they were loaded onto train and left for Kyiv.
The freight transport service on the Klaipeda – Kaunas route has been ensured by LTG Cargo in Lithuania and LTG Cargo Polska in Poland. At the Medyka (Poland, in Przemyśl County) – Mostyska (Lviv Oblast, Ukraine) checkpoint, “the semi-trailers with cargo are transshipped from the standard-gauge line to 1520mm line and transported by Ukrzaliznytsia to the Lisky terminal in Kyiv. From here, the goods can be distributed across the country by road transport,” Vyacheslav Yeromin, a member of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia, said.
Currently, at the request of customers, LTG Cargo and its partners carry out cargo transport services on three international routes connecting Lithuania and Ukraine through the border points of Mostyska – Medika, Yagodin – Dorohusk and Izov-Hrubeszów. Railway carriers mainly transport oil and agricultural products.
Transport of goods by rail can also be transported both from and to the Klaipeda seaport and anywhere in the Baltic States. It is expected that if there is customer demand, this route from Lithuania to Ukraine will be able to transport fertilizers efficiently and safely, PET granules, salt, and other commodities. The possibility of importing grain, building materials, food and beverages to Lithuania from Ukraine is being considered.
“For comparison, in modern conditions, a traffic bottleneck on the border of this route can last up to two weeks or more. We hope that in the future we will be able to reduce the time of transport of goods by railway by a few more days. Thus, today we can deliver semi-trailers with cargo three times faster than by road transport,” the CEO of LTG Cargo said.
In the future and if necessary, the possibility of introducing a regular train route in this direction will be considered, and LTG Cargo and Ukrzaliznytsia are ready to provide the locomotives and specialised platforms and wagons necessary for the transport of goods along Klaipeda – Kaunas route.
Aside from the partnership with LTG Cargo, Ukrzaliznytsia collaborates with ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) under a framework agreement signed in May 2023 to provide intermodal train services on the Kyiv – Vienna route which will boost Ukrzaliznytsia intermodal transport development. Following the agreement, in October, RCG successfully tested through its TransFER intermodal network, the first freight train between Vienna and Kyiv. The train departed Kyiv and crossed through the Terminal BILK logistics centre in Budapest transporting non-craneable semi-trailers carrying building materials.
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