Russia intensifies intermodal services between Moscow and Kaliningrad
Despite being cut off from mainland Russia, the Kaliningrad region is gaining importance as a logistics hub. Russian transport companies are launching more and more new container trains to the enclave region, primarily from Moscow. They not only stimulate freight transport between China and Europe but also intensify trade within Russia.
This week was really hot in the Kaliningrad region in terms of intermodal transport as two new container services started to run to the enclave from Moscow. On Tuesday, 13 July, Russian Railways performed the first delivery between China and the Kaliningrad region via the new route.
The first five 40-foot containers with household appliances from China were unloaded at the Bely Rast logistics centre (TLC Bely Rast) near Moscow. Afterwards, the boxes were reloaded and added to the train running between the TLC Bely Rast and TLC Chernyakhovsk, 90 kilometres eastwards from Kaliningrad. Earlier, the containers were moved between China and the Kaliningrad region only by the transit trains heading to or dispatched from Europe.
New service from TransContainer
In contrast to Russian Railways, TransContainer launched a new regular connection between Moscow and the Kaliningrad region. The container train with 57 wagons owned by the company departed from Tuchkovo station, Moscow region, and arrived at the Kaliningrad-Sortirovochny station. The route runs via Belarus and Lithuania with a transit time of 3 days.
“The route network expansion is one of the priorities of our work. We expect the competitive price and high-speed delivery of the new service will contribute to shifting more freight to rail that is now transported from Moscow to Kaliningrad by road transport,” noted Nikita Pushkarev, director for sales and customer service at TransContainer.