On May 24 Russian Railways, RF Ministry of transport, Japanese Ministry of lands, infrastructure and tourism (MLIT) and the TransSinberial Operators’ Association of Japan (TSIOAJ) signed an agreement to develop railway container transportation on the Japan – Russian – Europe route.
According to Russian Railways, the memorandum is aimed at offering a safe, seamless and fast container service and expanding container traffic between Japan, Russia and Europe using the TransSiberian Railway.
The parties agreed to develop the relevant transport and logistics infrastructure including increasing the capacity of the TransSiberian Railway, port and inland terminal facilities and container fleet.
Russian Railways and TSIOAJ intend to make efforts to organize regular direct service between Japanese and Russian Far East ports. The parties aim to improve transportation processes and optimize formalities in the modal change points where containers are loaded from shipboard to port and from port onto railway.
In order to cut transportation costs and offering competitive rates, the parties intend to optimize block train formation to reach maximum loading and attract back load.
To cut the transit time, Russian Railways and TSIOAJ aim to work on the information exchange system, including data exchange and providing electronic information to customs bodies on crossing borders.
The parties will work on developing an integrated container monitoring system along the entire route, including the Russian Railways network, Russian and Japanese ports, and implementing electronic cargo safety and monitoring appliances.
The day before that, RZD Logistics and FESCO Transportation Group announced launching a transit container service from Japan to Europe via Russia.