Russian Railways triples container traffic to Kaliningrad via Lithuania

photo: Archives/Russian Railways triples container traffic to Kaliningrad via Lithuania

Russian Railways (RZD) is increasing the frequency of container shipments between the Moscow region and Kaliningrad. Since March, freight trains running between the logistics centers Bely Rast in the Moscow region and East-West in the Kaliningrad region have started running three times more often. The railway route to Kaliningrad passes through Lithuanian territory. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) called on railway companies and organizations to stop any cooperation with the aggressor country, the Russian Federation.

After the war started, the official website of the Russian state railway company was hacked and has been down for a month. For this reason, all RZD communication takes place via social networks. Just in the latest Telegram post, Russian Railways reports a huge increase in container traffic to terminals in Kaliningrad. "Previously, container trains ran once a week and delivered up to 62 TEUs. Now the weekly volume has tripled to 186 TEUs. Polymers and building materials, confectionery, electronic and other consumer goods are transported in containers by rail," said RZD.

The East-West Transport and Logistics Centre in the Kaliningrad region started operations in October last year. It focuses on export and import transport as well as the handling of transit containers moving between Asia and Europe. It is estimated that this complex can handle up to 450,000 TEUs per year.