Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Lithuania, Railways, Transport

LG spokesman Mantas Dubauskas said the company planned on widening the gap.

In June, Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai handled 4.38 million tons of cargo, as compared with 3.106 million tons handled by the Latvian company.

"Our goal is to be among the top five freight carriers in the European Union and move up from the current 8th position. This means we will have to pass other companies, including the Latvian railway company," Dubauskas told BNS.

According to information available to BNS, the traffic of oil products and fertilizers from Belarus and Russia went up this year, with Russia also carrying more coal to its Kaliningrad region.

Mantas Bartuska, Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai CEO, said in June the company's objective was to be among top five freight carriers in the European Union, adding that LG competed with road transport, as well. In his words, the volume of freight is likely to grow by 20 million tons shortly, and trains from China was one of the ways of attracting more cargo.

Last year, Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai handled 47.6 million tons of cargo, while Latvian railways handled 47.8 million tons. The respective figures in January-June stood at 24.45 m illion tons and 24.36 million tons, indicating an increase by 4.6 percent and 1.15 percent year-on-year.