Baltic States – CIS, Lithuania, Railways, Transport

"Cooperation between Lithuania and Russia in the transport sector grows stronger and a number of relevant issues are successfully solved. Mutual reliance is increasing and useful bilateral solutions are found. Undoubtedly, these factors will boost the implementation of new transport projects and increase the flows of passengers and goods," Eligijus Masiulis told Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin.

At present, among the most important cooperation issues is the arrangement of the container train Merkurijus by the route Klaipeda/Kaliningrad-Moscow. Both countries agree that regarding the growth of container handling at Klaipeda and Kaliningrad ports it is necessary to improve the freight transportation conditions between the Baltic Sea ports and Russia. In future, the route of this train will be extended to Kazakhstan, writes LETA/ELTA.

Lithuanian, Russian and Belorussian railway enterprises take active participation in the implementation of this project. It is planned that already in this year a pilot passage of the train Merkurijus will be launched. Later on the trains will shuttle on the regular basis.

Shipping on the Curonian Lagoon, as well as on Lithuanian and Russian Kaliningrad District inland waterways, was also discussed at the meeting. According to Minister Masiulis, the agreement signed at the meeting on the construction of bridges over the Nemunas River is among the positive examples promoting the implementation of other projects as well.