Business news

MINSK, 23 March (BelTA) – Rail freight traffic between Belarus and Lithuania went up by 15% in 2017, BelTA learned from the press service of Belarusian Railways.

Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov and director general of Lithuanian Railways Mantas Bartuska held talks in Minsk on 22 March.

“The sides discussed Belarus-Lithuania rail freight traffic in 2017 and ways to boost it in 2018. Last year, there was a positive momentum in freight traffic which reached 33.4 million tonnes, up 15% from 2016,” the press service noted.

The top executives exchanged information on the measures taken to attract new traffic flows, including by means of optimizing freight rates. The sides stressed the need to coordinate the efforts to enable comfortable conditions for rail traffic between Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. They also touched upon shipping containers by Viking combined transport trains and using electronic documents to transport empty and loaded railcars and containers.

“As for Belarus-Lithuania passenger traffic, the number of people transported by international passenger trains reached 285,900, down 4.7% versus 2016. Over 106,000 passengers (37.4%) bought tickets online. Vladimir Morozov and Mantas Bartuska mapped out joint measures to increase passenger traffic,” the press service said.

The sides also talked about accepting and handing over freight trains, railcars and containers via border railway crossings, the operation of locomotives and locomotive crews in border areas, and interaction in manufacturing.