Partners commence first non-stop Germany/Russia link

Partners commence first non-stop Germany/Russia link Railion Deutschland, part of Deutsche Bahn, Russian national railroad RZD and Danish shipping company DFDS, today started regular operations on the first non-stop connection between Germany and Russia.
   Following test trips in recent months, the rail ferry FS Vilnius will make a weekly transit between Sassnitz-Mukran on the island of R'gen in the Baltic Sea and the Russian port of Baltijsk, near Kaliningrad. The crossing takes about 16 hours.
   The ferry, which has a capacity of 85 Russian rail cars or 108 truck trailers, will also continue to serve Klaipeda in Lithuania to and from Baltijsk.
   Sassnitz-Mukran is the biggest rail ferry port in Germany and the only port in Central Europe for transport using Russian broad gauge freight cars.
   To simplify and speed up the handling of freight cars going from Germany to Russia, RZD and Railion have reached an agreement so that the CIM consignment note will be valid to Baltijsk, thereby extending for the first time to a Russian station.
   “The use of the CIM consignment note on the sea crossing, and for the leg of the journey between the ferry and the Baltijsk rail station, speeds up operations considerably, making it possible for shipments to be carried into Russia as goods in transit,” said Eckart Fricke, board member with responsibility for single freight car transport at Railion.