FESCO Transportation Group and RZD Logistics, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, have announced the launch of the Trans-Siberian Landbridge, a joint transit service for express delivery of goods from Japan to Europe via the Russian Far East by the Trans-Siberian railway.
On May 23, 2019, a test container was dispatched from the port of Yokohama in the presence of Alexander Misharin, First Deputy CEO of Russian Railways.
The intermodal Trans-Siberian Landbridge is routed via Japanese ports, the Commercial Port of Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian railway and Brest to the destinations in Europe.
The total delivery time is from 19 days depending on the port of loading, while the sea transportation through the Suez Canal takes about 45 days. The test container with non-hazardous chemical products shipped from the port of Yokohama to Wroclaw, Poland, is to arrive in mid-June.
In the framework of the joint service FESCO provides shipping and terminal services and container fleet, while RZD Logistics is responsible for the organization of railway transportation.
During the test shipment the partners are to finalize the transportation technology in order to make the service available to customers in June 2019, and subsequently organize the return transportation from Europe to Japan.
It is expected that the Trans-Siberian Landbridge will be used to transport car components and consumer goods to Europe.
“We’ve agreed with the Ministry of Transport of Japan to jointly develop multimodal transportation through the Far Eastern ports of Russia and the Trans-Siberian railway. Over the past 5 years, Russian Railways has invested more than 5 billion dollars in the development of railways in the East of Russia. Transportation volume along this route has increased by more than a third. We see a great potential in cooperation with our Japanese colleagues and the created infrastructure will be used for transportation of goods from Japan,” said Alexander Misharin.
“Today, all cargo traffic of 3 million TEU per year between Japan and Europe goes through the Suez Canal. In cooperation with colleagues from Russian Railways, we can offer our customers a faster and more efficient transportation service along the Trans-Siberian railway. Attracting transit cargo to the Russian infrastructure meets both national strategic objectives and objective economic interests of market participants,” said Alexander Isurin, President of FESCO.
” Our experience in transportation through international transport corridors with India, China, Vietnam and Korea shows that modern shippers are looking for the high delivery speed and multimodal chains. The synergy of requests from Japanese and European businesses and combined capacities of our three companies led to the creation of Trans-Siberian Landbridge and is the key to the successful development of this new service,” said Vyacheslav Valentik, General Director of RZD Logistics.