Rail ferry service creates first non-stop Germany-Russia link
Creating the first non-stop rail connection between Germany and Russia, Railion Deutschland, part of DB Logistics, Russian national railroad RZD and Danish shipping company DFDS, have started a rail ferry service between Sassnitz-Mukran on the island of R'gen in the Baltic Sea and the Russian port of Baltijsk, near Kaliningrad.
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.
The rail ferry, “Vilnius,” will depart from Sassnitz-Mukran to Baltijsk once a week with a capacity of 49 Russian freight cars. The crossing time will be about 16 hours. The same ferry will also continue to serve Klaipeda in Lithuania twice a week with a capacity of 85 Russian 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.
“This puts Railion in a good position to participate in the growth of goods shipments that is expected between Germany and Russia,” said Eckart Fricke, member of the board of Railion Deutschland responsible for production.