UTLC ERA – Eurasian Rail Alliance Announces 2500th Train Milestone
The UTLC (JSC United Transport and Logistics Company) Eurasian Rail Alliance has announced new milestones: it has sent its 2,500th train this year and a total cargo volume of 186,000 TEU, which is a nine-month record.
The UTLC ERA shareholders are JSC Russian Railways, the National Union Belarusian Railway and JSC National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy. The company operates container services between China and Europe.
The 2,500th train, which was en route on 25 October, transported 41 forty-foot containers filled with Volvo Crossover cars. The freight train travelled from Xian in northwest China to Malaszewicze in eastern Poland, close to the Belarusian border. The containers were reloaded from standard gauge rolling stock to Russian gauge rolling stock at Dostyk (in Kazakhstan on the Kazakh-Chinese border) on 29 October. The freight train took six days to cover the overland route between Dostyk and Brest (on the Belarusian side of the Polish-Belarusian border).
Alexey Grom, President of UTLC Eurasian Rail Alliance, said:
“The 1000th and 2000th trains have become key indicators characterising the growth rate of transportation load and its geography. In 2017, a total of 2,102 trains were transported. In 2018, the 1000th train was sent by UTLC ERA on 23 June, while in 2017 and 2016, the mark of the 1000th train was reached in August in Brest and in December in Dostyk, respectively.”
Freight volume for the first nine months of 2018 was also at a record level of 186,000 TEU. In September 2018 UTLC ERA transported 28,853 TEUs. The comparative figure for 2017 is 16,400.
