JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (Kyiv) will provide regular routes of the Metrans transit train in the territory of Ukraine from China to Slovakia. According to the press service of the company, the first container train from the Chinese city of Xi’an to the Slovak city of Dunajska Streda ran through Ukraine on September 27-29. It is formed of 44 forty-foot containers.
It is preliminarily planned that four pairs of container trains will run from China to Slovakia every month. In October 2019 it is planned to send two trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia notes that Metrans reoriented freight traffic along this route from the Polish territory to Ukraine as the route through Ukraine is shorter by 520 km, which saves the sender’s funds.
As reported, in 2018 Ukrzaliznytsia transported 334,963 containers in twenty-foot equivalent (TEU), which is 13% more than in 2017 (295,479 TEU).