The Deputy Chief of Kaliningrad Railway, Sergey Andrianov, made this announcement during an RZD, Lithuanian and Belarus railways expert groups meeting in Palanga on May 14-15th which took place within the framework of Russian and Lithuanian Transport Ministers meeting.
During this tripartite meeting the Russian party offered to lower coefficients to existing transit rates by territories of adjoining states for some kinds of most important cargoes as the most rational way to overcome the recession in cargo traffic to Kaliningrad Port. However neither the Lithuanian nor the Belarus parties have accepted this offer yet.
Sergey Andrianov said that the transit tariffs question had been raised at a meeting of Ministers of transport of Russia and Lithuania. The outcome was that the Transport Departments of Lithuania and Belarus would consider the Russian offer by May 22nd and inform the Russian Ministry of Transport which in turn would examine the sufficiency of the decisions agreed.
Depending on the Lithuanian and Belarus decisions on transit tariffs, the Russian party reserves the right to cancel its reduced tariff for transit cargo in the direction of the port of Klaipeda.
Russia has the opportunity to transport of cargo in the Kaliningrad area by alternative means. In particular, was noted at the meeting that the program "Transport Independence of Russia" actively developed ferry communications between Baltiysk and Ust-Luga. In 2009 this ferry line was fully loaded (for comparison, in 2008 – loading was about 20 % of capacity), and the question on commissioning a second ferry service to provide cargo delivery for internal consumption of the Kaliningrad area is being studied.
We would like to remind readers that on September 1st, 2008 Lithuanian Railways increased their transit cargo tariffs by 11 %. On January 1st, 2009 Belarus Railway increased its tariff rates by 14 %. As a result of changes in rouble exchange rates with the European currencies, the cost of transportation of 1 ton per 1 km increased 1.5 times on the territory of Belarus and 3 times on the territory of Lithuania in comparison to Russian tariffs. It brought a 5-10% fall in Kaliningrad routed freight traffic.
Last April preliminary arrangements to reduce transit tariffs to Kaliningrad were agreed during a meeting of the Head of Kaliningrad Railway with representatives of Lithuania and Belarus railway management. However Lithuanian Railways have not accepted this decision, and Belarus did not reduce all of the agreed tariffs to Kaliningrad, or for all agreed cargoes.
During this tripartite meeting the Russian party offered to lower coefficients to existing transit rates by territories of adjoining states for some kinds of most important cargoes as the most rational way to overcome the recession in cargo traffic to Kaliningrad Port. However neither the Lithuanian nor the Belarus parties have accepted this offer yet.
Sergey Andrianov said that the transit tariffs question had been raised at a meeting of Ministers of transport of Russia and Lithuania. The outcome was that the Transport Departments of Lithuania and Belarus would consider the Russian offer by May 22nd and inform the Russian Ministry of Transport which in turn would examine the sufficiency of the decisions agreed.
Depending on the Lithuanian and Belarus decisions on transit tariffs, the Russian party reserves the right to cancel its reduced tariff for transit cargo in the direction of the port of Klaipeda.
Russia has the opportunity to transport of cargo in the Kaliningrad area by alternative means. In particular, was noted at the meeting that the program "Transport Independence of Russia" actively developed ferry communications between Baltiysk and Ust-Luga. In 2009 this ferry line was fully loaded (for comparison, in 2008 – loading was about 20 % of capacity), and the question on commissioning a second ferry service to provide cargo delivery for internal consumption of the Kaliningrad area is being studied.
We would like to remind readers that on September 1st, 2008 Lithuanian Railways increased their transit cargo tariffs by 11 %. On January 1st, 2009 Belarus Railway increased its tariff rates by 14 %. As a result of changes in rouble exchange rates with the European currencies, the cost of transportation of 1 ton per 1 km increased 1.5 times on the territory of Belarus and 3 times on the territory of Lithuania in comparison to Russian tariffs. It brought a 5-10% fall in Kaliningrad routed freight traffic.
Last April preliminary arrangements to reduce transit tariffs to Kaliningrad were agreed during a meeting of the Head of Kaliningrad Railway with representatives of Lithuania and Belarus railway management. However Lithuanian Railways have not accepted this decision, and Belarus did not reduce all of the agreed tariffs to Kaliningrad, or for all agreed cargoes.