The main advantage of the newly opened Vilnius and Kaunas Intermodal Terminals is the ability to serve large freight flows in a quick, efficient and cheap manner, says the press center of Lithuania’s Ministry of Transport and Communications. The logistical activities concentrated in one place will allow promoting establishment of the warehouses and other related infrastructure. In addition, it will foster the multimodal freight distribution network to Western and Eastern markets.
“The services provided by these terminals will be available to all companies on equal terms. From transit perspective, these new objects are beneficial since they are constructed next to the I and IX international transport corridors, Vilnius and Kaunas international airports and Kaunas Free Economic Zone”, at the opening ceremony said Rimantas Sinkevičius, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania.
According to the Minister, Vilnius and Kaunas Intermodal Terminals will certainly be beneficial to all citizens, businesses and the state itself i.e. create new jobs, augment state’s national budget, more goods will be transported via environmentally friendly modes of transport, will reduce the flow of trucks as well as the number of accidents and amount of the pollution.
Vilnius Intermodal Terminal is crucial in order to ensure efficient logistics infrastructure at both levels national and European. Not only it represents a common railway object, but a certain “land port” for refrigerated and sea containers. Connected with the port of Klaipėda by direct gauge, it can offer the same services as the latter, however, with more attractive conditions: container handling, storage, maintenance, customs warehouses and other services. It is expected that 30 000 TEU will be loaded at the terminal annually.
Kaunas Intermodal Terminal is the first intermodal center in the Baltic States to connect the European and Russian railway gauges and create transport links between East and West as well as North and South. It is expected that 12 000 TEU annually will be loaded at this terminal. Eventually, the territory of Kaunas Free Economic Zone will be connected to Kaunas Intermodal Terminal via a 4-5 km long railway branch and, thus, freight transportation will be even more convenient. Finally, the “Rail Baltica” European gauge, to be constructed soon, will allow transshipment of freights to Europe without barriers.