LITHUANIA: LTG Cargo is to withdraw from the CIS Railway Council agreement for the shared use of wagons across the 1 520 mm gauge region, and will instead use a private fleet from January 1 2025.
The national operator’s freight business aims to provide 90% of the 6 000 wagons in its private fleet to customers under long-term lease agreements, with 10% in reserve for one-off services.
It said this would contribute to national security and better meet customer needs.
The change only affects the wagon fleet managed by LTG Cargo. Wagons shared by railway administrations in other countries will continue to operate on the Lithuanian network.
‘By abandoning the shared fleet model used in the broad gauge area, we are taking another step in transforming the operations of LTG Cargo towards diversification to the west and adapting the company to operate in accordance with the agreements in force in Europe’, LTG Cargo CEO Eglė Šimė said on July 31.
‘This is already the second step of the withdrawal from the Railway Council agreement: after the war in Ukraine, LTG Cargo withdrew its wagons from movement through Russia and Belarus, and this second step is a disconnection from the shared fleet system and a move towards a European model of operation, where the entire fleet of wagons is privately owned and will not be used by the railway administrations of other countries.’
The CIS Railway Council was established in 1992 to facilitate continued interoperability between the railways across the former Soviet Union. Ukraine’s national railway Ukrzaliznytsia withdrew when it cut all ties with Russia and Belarus following the full-scale invasion in 2022.
