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LTG Cargo, the freight transport company of the Lithuanian Railways (LTG) Group, and Ukrainian Railways are strengthening their mutual cooperation. Lithuanian and Ukrainian carriers, eager to develop new services and intermodal freight transport, tested the new Kaunas-Kiev freight route. Semi-trailers were brought to Kaunas Intermodal Terminal from Klaipėda Sea Port. The first train loaded with semi-trailers has already reached Kiev.   

The test run of the new route was implemented just two months after the official meeting between LTG Cargo and Ukrainian Railways in September to develop mutually beneficial solutions for the development of international transport.   

"Working with Ukraine to provide our customers with attractive freight solutions between Lithuania and Ukraine is always at the forefront of our attention. Together with our partners, we are constantly looking for ways to facilitate and contribute to more efficient freight movement between the countries.   

Due to the extreme congestion at the Polish-Ukrainian border, it can take up to two weeks or more to cover this distance by road. We hope that in the future we will be able to reduce rail freight transport times by a few more days. This will allow us to deliver semi-trailers and cargo to our customers up to 3 times faster than road transport", says Eglė Šimė, LTG Cargo CEO. 

If customers wish, rail freight on this route can also be transported to/from Klaipėda Seaport. It is expected that if customers wish, this route will be able to efficiently and safely transport multimodal cargo from Lithuania to Ukraine, such as fertilisers, PET pellets, salt. Cereals, construction materials, food and beverages will be imported from Ukraine to Lithuania.   

LTG Cargo will transport cargo on the Kaunas-Kiev route from Lithuania to Kiev, LTG Cargo Polska will transport cargo from Poland. At the border crossing between Medyka (Poland)-Mostysk (Ukraine), the semi-trailers with cargo will be transferred from European to Ukrainian broad gauge wagons and transported by Ukrainian Railways to the Liski terminal in Kiev. From there, the cargo can be distributed around the country by road," says Vyacheslav Yeromin, Member of the Board of Ukrainian Railways.   

LTG Cargo and its partners are currently transporting freight on three international routes connecting Lithuania and Ukraine via the Mostyska-Medyka and Yagodino-Darohusk and Izov-Hrubeshov border crossing points, at the request of customers. The main shipments between the two countries are oil and agricultural products.   

If customers wish, individual shipments can also be transported to Ukraine via the regular intermodal route Kaunas-Slavkov, and from there via the broad gauge route to Ukraine, as the Slavkov terminal near Katowice is an important hub on the Polish broad gauge, linking the railway lines between Lithuania and Poland, and Ukraine and Poland.