While participating in international railway industry conference RailFreight On Tour in Vilnius last week, SJSC "Latvijas dzelzceļš" Board Member Rinalds Pļavnieks emphasized that, in order for the railway industry to gradually improve its competitiveness in the Baltics, railway industry companies in the region must closely cooperate, as well as national and European institutions.
At the international conference, representatives of national railway companies and other related enterprises discussed the opportunities and challenges of the Baltic railway industry in developing a sustainable transport corridor and ensuring its competitiveness, paying special attention to further development of the Amber Train project.
Participants in the discussion agreed that, in order for the Baltic transport corridor to be able to increase its competitiveness in the region, the activity and proactive support of all Baltic countries for the promotion of multimodal transport, quality railway infrastructure and efficient railway services are essential.
SJSC "Latvijas dzelzceļš" Board Member Rinalds Pļavnieks says: “In the last decade, the role of railways in passenger transport services significantly increased throughout Europe, as did the share of railways in the entire freight transport chain. Sustainable multimodal transport provides an opportunity to improve competitiveness of the Latvian and Baltic transport corridors among other international routes. By actively and coherently continuing to develop the intermodal Amber Train project, we will create a regional development tool.”
Amber Train is a Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian transnational project designed to promote competitiveness of the Baltic transport corridor, as well as to meet the conditions set out in the EU White Paper: to shift at least 30% of road freight over 300 km to other, more environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as waterborne or rail transport.
The conference also featured a panel discussion on the situation and future prospects of the Ukrainian transport industry, particularly the railway, including the future of related transport in the Baltic countries.