JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has served the first transit train on the Sanya-Slawkow (China-Poland) route, head of the company Yevhen Kravtsov said on his Facebook page.
“The first container train from China to the European Union traveled 39 hours and 54 minutes through the territory of Ukraine. For the first time, the train traveled on the wide gauge LHS without an overload on the border. Colleagues met it in Poland’s Slawkow. The China-E transit route through Ukraine is reliable, cheap and convenient for all participants in the logistics chain, and this train is a good and first important sign in organizing large-scale projects with China and Central Asia for Ukrzaliznytsia,” Kravtsov said.
He also said that Ukrzaliznytsia has a number of advantages for such routes and their development in the future, as it can be part of the land, sea and TITR routes (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route).
At the same time, he noted a decrease in the volume of transit traffic of the country as a whole.
“Since 2008, the volume of transit traffic of Ukraine has been falling. Transit from China to the EU countries has a number of artificial barriers with political coloring. This is not a business issue, but geopolitics,” Kravtsov explained, adding that Ukrzaliznytsia is the most reliable partner for transit, as it offers alternative and profitable routes.
According to the head of Ukrzaliznytsia, the indicated container train left China’s Xi’an for Slawkow, the travel time was 12 days. According to Kravtsov, for the Ukrainian railway company this is an effective beginning of the year in freight traffic.
