New route for Viking container train
Ukrainian Railway has extended the network of the Viking intermodal service by adding a new route. Since mid-July, the freight train has been running to the Izmail port on the Danube River. This enables multimodal deliveries to the countries of Central and Southern Europe.
The new route of the Viking train was jointly launched by the Ukrainian Railway (UZ), the Ukrainian freight forwarding company PLASKE, Izmail Sea Commercial Port and other partners. It was open for regular operations in mid-July. The first shipment to Izmail of the Viking train included 41 40-foot containers loaded with pulp. With the new option, the Izmail port plans to increase its freight traffic as the new route is expected to be used for the multimodal, rail-river, deliveries to the countries of Central and Southern Europe, which are located along the Danube River, including Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria.
Viking train
The Viking container train was launched in 2003. Initially, it connected three countries (Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania) running between the ports of Chornomorsk (former Illichivsk) and Klaipeda. Eventually, the network of the intermodal service was extended to other countries. As a result, the Viking train links eight states. Five more countries joined the service. Among them are Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia.
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