The Baltic railways were connected by the Amber Train route
Tonight, the first Amber Train carrying cargo to the port of Paldiski in Estonia left from Šeštokai station near the Polish-Lithuanian border.
Amber Train is an intermodal train that will run on the Šeštokai-Riga-Tallinn route, thus connecting the three Baltic States by rail and opening new business opportunities for freight carriers.
“This first Amber Train run is a great example of effective cooperation between Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian railway companies, when all the essential details of the project were agreed and settled within a month from the Amber Train idea it became practical implementation. From now on, cargo from Western Europe will pass through the Baltic States in a much shorter time”, says Mantas Bartuška, General Director of Lithuanian Railways.
Amber Train is a great example of joint work between the three Baltic States. The result of our joint work is actual freight and value for the customer. We believe that our cooperation has great potential – the newly planned European railway infrastructure may offer new opportunities in the future, but today we can work with the existing network and offer our customers convenient and efficient freight logistics “, says Edvins Bērziņš, President of Latvian Railways (Latvijas Dzelzcelš).
The locomotive of Lietuvos Geležinkeliai hauled 43 container loads through 3 countries. The convoy, which arrived from France, was picked up at the Trakiškės station in Poland and escorted to Latvia via the Šeštokai transshipment station, where the load was taken over by the Latvian carrier LDz Cargo. Estonian carrier EVR Cargo moved the cargo through the territory of Estonia to the final station at Paldiski terminal.
The first Amber Train customer is Forwardis, a French rail and multimodal freight expedition company, part of the French SNCF Logistics group, which is one of the leaders in freight transport in Europe.
The purpose of the first test run is to test technological processes, time schedules, speed between stations, exchange of documents and data. In the near future, it is planned to meet with partners in Vilnius to discuss the test results and complete the harmonization of all technological and commercial conditions.
Amber Train is a joint project of Lithuanian Railways, Latvijas Dzelzcelš and EVR Cargo, on which the railway managers of the Baltic States agreed in Riga, March of this year.
The project will help the Baltic States to join forces in developing intermodal transportation by combining different modes of transport. This type of transportation not only saves the costs for shipping companies and road haulers, but also reduces environmental pollution, congestion, noise, road accidents and other negative effects of motor road vehicles to the environment.