The Joint Stock Company “United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Rail Alliance” (UTLC ERA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two European partners: the Consorzio ZAI Interporto Quadrante Europa logistics terminal of Verona, Italy, and ROSTOCK PORT GmbH of Germany. The signing ceremony took place at the Transport Logistics Trade Fair 2019 in Munich on June 5.
The Memorandum of Understanding was co-signed by UTLC ERA President Alexey Grom, Rostock Port GmbH CEO Dr. Gernot Tesch and Consorzio ZAI Interporto Quadrante Europa President Matteo Gasparato. The participating parties have outlined their intention to cooperate more closely in the area of multimodal container transport between China and Europe and to further increase capacities in cargo transport by rail. Container shipments will be sent by the logistics centre in Verona, Italy, to Rostock, Germany, from where they will be forwarded on a short-sea route to the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad. The containers will then continue on the main UTLC ERA rail route with the company being responsible for the entire terminal-to-terminal transport service on this 1520 mm rail gauge.
“Multimodal solutions allow us to provide much sought door-to-door cargo delivery services to our clients. Besides this, they help solve the problems that arise, for example, due to bottlenecks that are caused by maintenance work on the tracks and that lead to slower train speeds. This new route makes it possible to offer a genuinely customer-oriented services with shorter delivery times. The port in Kaliningrad can currently process up to eight trains a day and is connected to the entire Baltic Sea region via short-sea links. As many as 40 trains passed through the port in December 2018 and we can further increase the traffic volume to help realize its full capacity,” – said Alexey Grom, UTLC ERA President.
The Memorandum of Understanding is consistent with UTLC ERA strategy to build long-term relations with European transport and logistic companies and to further develop rail logistics along the Eurasian corridor.
The Joint Stock Company “United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Rail Alliance” (UTLC ERA) provides containers transport services between Europe and China to a number of companies from Europe and Asia. UTLC ERA transports over 76 per cent of transit freight on scheduled container trains that travel in both directions between China and Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus on 1520 mm broad-gauge tracks with 280,500 TEU transported in 2018. The overall transport volume on this route in 2018 was 370,000 TEU, an increase of one third compared to 2017. The company provides transport services between Europe and China along 57 routes. The new and most important hubs in Europe are Neumarkt, Barcelona, Bremerhaven and Luxembourg.