Since 1 January JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways' has increased freight transportation rate by 4.2%, Latvia - 5% and Belarus - 7%. This year Ukrainian railway company transferred wagons to the subsidiary, which has adopted an administrative fee and due to that, the transportation cost has increased 12%. The expiry of additional ratio for certain routes and change of the USA dollar rate will raise freight transportation cost in Russia by an average of 8%.

The ‘Lithuanian Railways' decision to increase the rate is not so painful that it would result in the refusal of the railway transport. The rate is calculated individually for each load, depending on the amount, transport direction, weight and other parameters. Other modes of transport in chain do not cheapen services as well; discounts are usually applied to groups of goods. While In Russia and Belarus, increasing the overall rate, the prices of groups of goods often remain unchanged.

On 20 February 2014 a conference ‘Development and Opportunities of the Contrailer Train ‘Nemunas' organised by ‘Lithuanian Railways' was held in Klaipėda. Topical issues of cooperation developing logistics and transport services and improving the interaction between the different modes of transport were discussed during the conference; as well as the prospects and development opportunities of a new contrailer train ‘Nemunas', extending the train route from (to) Klaipėda to Minsk and in the other direction from (to) Kaliningrad, were introduced.

A new project of JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways' and the Belarusian railways, which was given a symbolic name ‘Nemunas' – is a contrailer train carrying trucks with trailers on its special platforms. This is a unique decision of logistics in Central and Eastern Europe. This project involved customs, border, and veterinary specialists of both countries and freight forwarders of association ‘Lineka'.

During one trip the train ‘Nemunas' can transport 30 trucks with trailers and one passenger coach for drivers. First runs of ‘Nemunas' were carried out in November 2013. The train arrives from Minsk in Kaunas within 10 hours.

The new service is in demand as it provides business with more opportunities to transport freights via our country and reduces the load of vehicles at road checkpoints.

For more information: Freight Forwarding Department ‘LG Ekspedicija' (Eng. ‘LR Expedition'), Tel.  +370 5 269 3231, E-mail [email protected].

Lithuanian and Ukrainian railway companies are looking for the most favourable way of Ukrainian grain transportation via Klaipėda port to Scandinavian countries. Negotiation on the transportation from Ukraine to Klaipėda between JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways', the country's railway personnel, forwarders and grain growers has been postponed due to the ongoing disturbances in Ukraine. The negotiations are scheduled to recommence in April.

The recent years have shown that the port of Klaipėda, which started using new and much larger grain handling capacities, lacks the cargo. Lithuanian port is ready to load significantly more grain than country's farmers are capable to crop. Within a year Lithuanian farmers crop 3-4 million tons of grain. 2 million tons of these are consumed in the internal market. Larger part of the rest grain is exported through the port of Klaipėda.

Grain is one of the most important cargos of the Ukrainian ports. Over the year Ukrainians produce about 50 million tons of grain. About 30 million tons of grains are exported. 14 of 18 Ukrainian sea ports are equipped with grain terminals. Ukraine has large grain elevators in Nikolayev, Odessa, Sevastopol and Juznij ports. Ukrainian grain travels through these ports to Africa, Spain, which are the main buyers of Ukrainian grain. However, it would be useful to export grain to the Baltic countries – primarily to Western Europe and Scandinavian markets. The representatives of Lithuanian railways and the port of Klaipėda offer new schemes of Ukraine's grain exports.

It is analyzed that grain might be transported from Ukraine to Klaipėda both by the container train ‘Viking Train' and by separately formed grain transportation trains. 

Delegation of JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways' visited Moscow Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts uniting 700 companies.

Having economic interests both sides held a meeting in Moscow and discussed the possibility of transporting freights cheaper and safer. The representatives of Russian companies were most concerned about the price ‘Lithuanian Railways' may offer and other relevant criteria such as service and freight security.

The company's ‘Lithuanian Railways' visit was aimed at attracting additional freight both to Lithuania and to the Kaliningrad region by transit through Lithuanian territory.   

JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways' relates the increase in volumes of freights to the Kaliningrad region with the forthcoming World Soccer Championship in 2018, therefore it is expected that Russia will transport construction materials, equipment and other goods by railways.

The Ministry of Transport, administering a part of EU support for Lithuania, proposes that investments of EU structural funds, administered by the Ministry, are primarily directed to the development of transport infrastructure and the establishment of logistics centres.

A decision to establish public logistics centres is regarded highly ambitious because the centres will help to develop the interaction between different means of transport within the Pan-European transport corridors. It will also help to solve problems of high levels of traffic on highways and in city streets within the country, as well as will create more favourable conditions seeking to attract foreign investments to the country's economy.

Vilnius public logistics centre is being built in a very convenient location, namely in Vilnius which is not far away from Belarus that has no its own access to the Baltic Sea and expresses a need for appropriate storage areas. The intermodal terminal of logistics centre will serve road and rail transport, it will serve up to 100 thousand containers a year. It is planned that the terminal will accept large flows of freight transported by trains including freights arriving from the port of Klaipėda. Here freights will be transferred to a particular platform, from which they will be transported by road to final consumers. Having finished the terminal construction and linked the Vilnius city southern bypass with the Minsk highway, the city streets will be loaded with approximately 270 fewer trucks, that is almost 100 thousand a year.   

The intermodal rail terminal is planned to be finished by November this year.

With EU support an analogous intermodal terminal of the public logistics centre is also being built in Kaunas. The built terminal nearby Palemonas will be linked with ‘Rail Baltica' transport system when a reconstruction of the current railway line Kazlų Rūda-Kaunas is completed. Implementing this project, the wide gauge (1520 mm) line will be reconstructed and a 1435 mm width gauge line, which meets European standards, will be built. It is planned to reconstruct 30.2 km of the present double-track line and to build a parallel European gauge line, reconstruct railway structures, Jūrė, Mauručiai, Jiesia and Kaunas railway stations, to adapt signalling, communications, and electricity networks. This is the largest EU support project currently implemented in the Lithuanian transport sector.

Overall, there are about 100 currently implemented transport infrastructure modernization projects, which are supported by investments of 2007-2013 EU funding.

For more information: Head of Logistics Project Department Mindaugas Butnorius,

tel. 8 5 2692536, mob. tel. +370 663 56350, E-mail: [email protected].

Seeking to solve a problem concerning freight transportation via Klaipėda, it is intended to move freight flows to the countryside. Klaipėda State Seaport Authority creates plans how to release the city from constantly increasing transport flows. Due to emerge of new terminals, load intensifies every year. This causes air pollution, noise increase and inconveniences for citizens. The common development plan of a railway junction and railway sidings of the port of Klaipėda should be verified by the Government's decision.

It is supposed that over the next decade load in the port of Klaipėda will double and will exceed 70 million tones a year. Seaport Authority aims to improve the situation in the city even if the load increases. It is planned to develop the Klaipėda Railway junction building new railway sidings not via the city, but through the countryside. This vision is supported by both the city Municipality and the Ministry of Transport.

For more information: Public relation representative of State Enterprise Klaipėda State Seaport Authority Geda Mikaločienė, Tel. 8 46 499 708, mob. 8 615 30536, E-mail [email protected]

New cargo ferry line linked the port of Klaipėda with Germany. On 21 February the ferry ‘Mistral' from Lübeck (Travemünde) carrying 100 semi trailers moored at the CJSC ‘Klaipėda Container Terminal‘ Ro-Ro and general cargo terminal quay.

The ferry ‘Mistral' has been rented from the Finnish company. The ferry will have three trips per week for a while. If the line meets expectations, Ro-Ro cargo will be shipped daily.

‘Mistral' was built in 1999, its length is 153 m, it can ship about 100 trailers at a time.

It is expected that a new cargo, namely semi trailers and trailers, will open new opportunities both for the terminal and the entire port. Travemünde will become a new site from which Klaipėda will be reached by ship.

Up to now Ro-Ro cargoes to and from Klaipėda were shipped only by AB ‘DFDS Seaways' ferries. Differently from the latter company‘s ferries, ‘Mistral' will not ship passengers. It has only 12 seats for truck drivers.

On February 6, 2014 Ukraine Railways Direction and the representatives of the operator of the ‘Viking Train' in Ukraine - Ukrainian State Transport Service Centre ‘Liski' visited the port of Klaipėda. In addition to this, the representatives of the port load companies and employees of JSC ‘Lithuanian Railways' took part in a meeting.

During the meeting in the Seaport Authority, the activity of the port of Klaipėda, the economic port indicators were introduced, the port development projects were being carried out; the port of Klaipėda opportunities and potential, load companies' activities in the port, particularities, logistics issues, business climate, communication opportunities and prospects were reviewed. The guests visited the container terminal of Klaipėda, JSC ‘Smeltė' which loads containers, CJSC ‘Klasco' which loads friable freights.

Lithuania has been successfully communicating with Ukraine for several years. A perfect example of such communication between Lithuania and Ukraine is the container-contrailer train ‘Viking Train'. This is the joint project of Lithuania, Belarus, Ukrainian railways, the port load companies and the ports of Klaipėda, Ilyichevsk, and Odessa. The 10^th anniversary of its activity was commemorated last year. Compared with auto transportation, freights transportation in this train is quicker, cheaper, more environmentally friendly and safer. On February 6, 2003 the project ‘Viking Train' started and the annual turnover of transported freights from (to) Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine increased from 175 TEU to 60 000 TEU.

The members of Ukrainian Railways Delegacy are mostly interested in container terminals operating in the port of Klaipėda. In addition to this, some possibilities are considered to transport more freight by the ‘Viking Train' from Ukraine to the port of Klaipėda.

Food and forage, mineral products, oil and its products, chemical and mineral fertilizers, wood, cork and its articles, paper, ferrous metal, including scrap metal are transported from Ukraine to Klaipėda. Food and forage are transported mostly.

For more information: http://www.vikingtrain.com

Prospects for the port of Klaipėda reached a completely new level over the last year. The largest amount of money over the port history was invested in the infrastructure of the port of Klaipeda in 2013. This investment was three times larger than in 2012. Last year, the port of Klaipėda reached the third best load result over the port history. It was 33.42 million tons. The navigation channel of the central and southern port part was deepened to 14.5 meters and widened to 150 meters.

Last year was very important to the port of Klaipėda considering its significant projects. The building of liquefied natural gas (LNG) was began, one of the nicest and biggest central terminals in the Baltic Sea was constructed, the embankment building of the Smeltė container terminal was finished, the aquatic environment part near ‘Klasco' embankments was widened, the pier built by the freight company ‘Bega' of the port of Klaipėda was given to be used, the reconstruction of the embankment used by the Klaipėda container terminal was finished.

A new era for the port of Klaipėda begins this year. It turns from a feeder port to a container distribution centre (HUB). The port will have the most modern terminal of cargoes and passengers in surrounding states. The LNG terminal will start operating.

For more information: Public relation representative of State Enterprise Klaipėda State Seaport Authority Geda Mikaločienė, Tel. 8 46 499 708, mob. 8 615 30536, E-mail [email protected]