Belarusian Railways enables contrailer transportation to, from Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast

Taking into account requests of the Kaliningrad Oblast business community Belarusian Railways came up with competitive rates on transit contrailer transportation in 2020.

The Kaliningrad Oblast branch of Russian Railways dispatched the first contrailers on a container train on 7 May. A contrailer platform with an automobile semi-trailer spent about two days to reach Moscow Oblast in transit via Belarus. The shipment was twice as fast as transportation by road while the costs are comparable. The return shipment was sent on 20 May. The contrailer with freight reached the Kaliningrad-Sortirovochny railway station on 23 May.

The Belarusian Railways press service said that the project is designed to increase freight transportation to and from Kaliningrad Oblast. Plans have been made for regular contrailer shipments by container trains between Kaliningrad and Moscow.

The new service will allow making precise freight delivery plans because container trains follow a strict schedule.

Contrailer transportation provides for transporting freight in automobile trailers on special railway platforms for most of the way. Regular transportation by road is used as the last-mile solution. The technology allows reducing time in transit. Contrailers face no delays at border checkpoints. The technology can also reduce the fleet of semi-trucks in use, reduce fuel consumption, save driver time, and reduce traffic accidents and environmental impact.

Contrailer transportation allows expanding the number of railway service customers and shift cargoes from automobile transport to railway transport.