Can Lithuania Move Its Harvest Without Clogging Klaipėda?

LTG Cargo has almost 1,700 grain wagons ready for a short and intense harvest season. The harder task is keeping regional stations, the main route to Klaipėda, port terminals and returning empty wagons moving at the same pace.

Harvest logistics has a simple weakness: the crop can be ready before the railway is. Lithuanian state-owned rail freight operator LTG Cargo moved 2.5 million tonnes of grain in 2025, out of 24.4 million tonnes of total freight. Much of that grain travelled within only a few months. According to LTG's press release, the company expects the new harvest flow to peak again in August.

Last August, LTG Cargo carried a record 560,000 tonnes of new-crop grain. That was more than one fifth of its full-year grain volume in a single month. The company had prepared around 1,600 wagons for the season, 33% more than in 2024.

This year, the available fleet has grown to almost 1,700 wagons. That is only about 6% more than last season, which means that the main change is not another large increase in wagon numbers, but the way LTG Cargo plans to use them.

Lithuania’s Grain Peak Lasts Weeks, Not a Full Year

Annual freight figures can hide the pressure created by the harvest. According to Official Statistics Portal, Lithuania harvested 6.81 million tonnes of cereals in 2025, almost 10% more than a year earlier. Yet LTG Cargo said its annual grain volume did not reach the 2024 result. Klaipėda Port also handled less grain: 3.9 million tonnes, down 7% from 4.1 million tonnes in 2024.

The size of the crop is only one factor. Export contracts, prices, domestic consumption, storage capacity and the timing of shipments also decide when grain enters the transport system. A large harvest can remain in elevators for months. A smaller volume can create more pressure if buyers want it delivered within a narrow period.

The Route to Klaipėda Is a Chain

Most Lithuanian grain does not travel directly from a farm to a ship. It first reaches an elevator or loading point. Wagons then move to a regional station, where railway staff assemble them into a train. The train continues towards Klaipėda, enters the port railway system and waits for access to an unloading terminal. Once unloaded, the wagons must return inland.

Every stage depends on the one before it. The Klaipėda State Seaport Authority says Lithuania normally produces between six and seven million tonnes of grain. Around 70–80% is exported, and roughly the same share of those exports passes through Klaipėda. In 2025, the port handled 3.9 million tonnes of grain.

Klaipėda advertises total annual cargo-handling capacity of about 70 million tonnes. Its actual throughput reached 39 million tonnes in 2025. On paper, this should mean substantial spare capacity, but total annual port capacity does not show how many grain trains a terminal can unload during one busy week. It also says little about railway access, locomotive availability, marshalling capacity or whether an empty train can leave immediately after unloading. The seasonal bottleneck is less about Klaipėda’s total size and more about whether each part of the chain is ready at the same time.

LTG Cargo Moves Train Formation Away from Large Stations

LTG Cargo says large stations became bottlenecks during previous grain seasons. Groups of wagons arrived from several regions and waited to be sorted, joined and dispatched towards Klaipėda.

To send more complete trains towards Klaipėda without routing every wagon through the same large yards, the company will now form some trains earlier in the journey. Wagons collected from areas around Alytus and Vilkaviškis will be assembled at Kazlų Rūda. Grain wagons from Rokiškis, Kupiškis and nearby areas will be grouped at Panevėžys. This can remove unnecessary shunting and reduce the time spent waiting for another group of wagons before a train is ready to leave.

The model will not work for every customer. A direct or nearly complete train requires enough grain at one loading point or within one region. Smaller flows will still need consolidation. The task is to find the right balance, because too much centralisation clogs the largest stations, and too much decentralisation can produce small trains, inefficient locomotive use and more pressure on scarce train paths.

LTG Cargo has already tested direct grain services from Viduklė to Klaipėda. Saulius Vaičekauskas, Head of Service Delivery at LTG Cargo, said the change increased wagon turnover several times. A direct train has clear advantages. It avoids an intermediate marshalling yard. The wagons face fewer stops, fewer shunting operations and fewer chances to wait for another service.

The 500 New Wagons Did't Solve the Whole Chain

LTG Cargo completed a EUR 36 million programme to acquire 500 grain wagons in 2024 and 2025. The company’s annual report says the investment addressed a shortage of specialist rolling stock. All 500 wagons had entered service by the end of 2025. The wagons were built in Ukraine. 

Each new wagon can carry up to 70 tonnes. LTG Cargo also mentions faster loading and tighter discharge equipment. When the order was announced, the company expected the fleet to add around 1.2 million tonnes of annual transport capacity.

LTG Cargo links the expanded fleet with the record 560,000 tonnes moved in August 2025. Still, more wagons can create new queues when stations and terminals cannot process them. A wagon standing loaded outside Klaipėda adds nothing to effective capacity. Neither does an empty wagon waiting for a path back inland.

Can the Klaipėda Route Avoid Another Bottleneck?

LTG Cargo enters the season in a stronger position than it did several years ago. It no longer depends on borrowed Belarusian grain wagons during peak periods. It has 500 new vehicles in service from the start of the season. It is forming trains at regional stations, expanding direct services and paying more attention to empty returns.

The company also has a record month behind it, and while it proves that the fleet and network can handle a sharp increase in volume, it doesn't mean that every part of the system has enough capacity for another peak.