OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2007. This year has seen a considerable expansion in the geographical reach and volume of freight shipments, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

To realise one of the Company’s priority tasks, namely the development of container shipments along Eurasian routes, the joint venture ContainerTransScandinavia was set up. This agreement to create a jv between TransContainer and Finnish Railways was signed at the Russia-EU summit in November 2006, and ContainerTransScandinavia duly began operations in May 2007. As part of the presentation of the jv during 16-17 April, the Northern Lights container train made a test run between Koivala in Finland and Moscow.

As part of the plans to develop international container shipments, the trilateral cooperation between Russian Railways, Deutsche Bahn and the Chinese Ministry of Railways continued.

Thanks to its active positioning, Russian Railways has reawakened the interest of Japanese freight owners in using the Trans-Siberian Main Line. From the beginning of 2007, the volume of container shipments carrying Japanese goods and using Russia’s railways has increased by nearly 1,5 times, and test shipments of Toyota car components have been carried out along the Trans-Siberian.