TALLINN, Estonia: May 30, 2018. The national railway companies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are to launch an intermodal transport service to deliver goods to the Baltic States from Western Europe faster, cheaper and with less environmental impact.

Dubbed ‘The Amber Train’, the once-weekly operation will be managed by Lithuanian Railways, Latvia’s LDZ Logistika and Estonia’s EVR Cargo to carry 62 containers 650 kilometres from Šestokai on the border between Lithuania and Poland via Riga to Tallinn.

“The Amber Train project is a good example of creating new products within the existing infrastructure,” said LDZ Logstika Board member Eduards Čerņavskis. “On a wider scale, our collaboration in the rail sector will allow to unburden automotive road infrastructure from heavy cargoes and facilitate efficient usage of railway lines, whereas from the client’s perspective, it provides a new opportunity for using a single route to reach all three Baltic States.“

Egidijus Lazauskas, Lithuanian Railways deputy director general and Freight Transportation director added the initiative was a great example of cooperation between the Baltic States that benefits everyone by offering “fast, reliable, and effective rail freight connection between Western and Northern Europe”.

EVR Cargo chairman Raul Toomsalu said that in launching the project, the three national railway companies took a “critical look” at their technical procedures and have adopted "electronic communication" to better manage trade flows between them in the future.

Pictured: The agreement was signed by Egidijus Lazauskas, Lithuanian Railways deputy director general and Freight Transportation director; Svetlana Berga, chairwoman of the Management Board of LDZ Cargo, a subsidiary of Latvian Railways; Eduards Cernavskis, member of the Board of LDZ Logistika, a subsidiary of Latvian Railways; and Raul Toomsalu, chairman of the Board of EVR Cargo.