LDz and Russian Railways evaluate passenger transportation route St. Petersburg – Kaliningrad / Article / LSM.lv

At a remote meeting on Thursday, November 27, the management of Latvian and Russian railway companies discussed the possibility of introducing passenger transportation on the St. Petersburg-Kaliningrad route in the future, crossing the territory of Latvia, Ella Pētermane

In order to discuss the current cooperation and agree on further projects to be jointly implemented next year, on Thursday, November 26, a remote meeting of LDz Chairman of the Board Maris Kleinbergs and First Deputy Head of the Russian Railway Company Sergei Pavlov was held. During the meeting, the progress of the started projects was evaluated, as well as mutual interest in the implementation of new initiatives was confirmed.

Over the past year, Latvijas dzelzceļš has been paying significant attention to the diversification of the company’s target markets and attracting new customers, as well as to expanding cooperation with existing partners.

During the meeting with the management of the Russian railway company, we discussed new opportunities for cooperation and ways to address current issues more effectively, “said Kleinbergs.

According to him, although international passenger transport by rail is not currently carried out as a result of the virus pandemic, the possibility of introducing passenger transport on the route St. Petersburg-Kaliningrad, crossing the territory of Latvia, was also discussed during the conversation.

LDz has started work on issues related to route coordination. “During the conversation, we agreed that work on this project will continue next year,” says Kleinbergs.

In order to promote the competitiveness of railway transport and thus increase cargo volumes, the management of LDz and Russian railway companies agreed that it is necessary both to develop and implement new projects and to work together on simplification of regulatory procedures. Taking into account the increasing trend towards more environmentally friendly modes of transportation, this would be an important precondition for the transfer of cargo from road to rail, the representative of LDz pointed out.

In order to strengthen cooperation, several high-level meetings of the Chairman of the Board of LDz with representatives of the Russian Railways have recently taken place. Possibilities for closer mutual cooperation were also discussed at the remote plenary session of the Trans-Siberian Transport Coordination Council held in early November, where one of the topical issues was the increase of infrastructure capacity for transport from Asia to Europe.

“LDz has joined the North Sea-Baltic Sea freight corridor this year, but at our initiative the corridor has been extended to Belarus and Russia. Thus, the connection through Riga has become an important part of the European freight corridor, providing connections with China. cargo to Latvian ports and further to the west of Europe or Scandinavia, could share the load with other intensively used corridors and attract more cargo, “said Kleinbergs.

CONTEXT:

The volume of rail freight transportation in Latvia in ten months of this year has decreased by 45.5% compared to the corresponding period of 2019 and amounted to 19.186 million tons. The news agency LETA reported on the data collected by the Ministry of Transport.

Of which, international traffic amounted to 17.558 million tonnes, a decrease of 48% compared to the same period in 2019, while domestic traffic increased by 14.7% to 1.628 million tonnes.

In 2019, the volume of rail freight transportation in Latvia decreased by 15.8% compared to 2018 and was 41.492 million tons.

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