News
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan will this month conduct a trial transport on a block train from Japan to Europe to promote the use of the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) as a third transport option after seaborne and airborne transport.
The MLIT completed cargo transport pilot projects from Japan to Moscow in fiscal 2018 and from Japan to Europe in fiscal 2019. Previous trials mainly focused on the carriage of single containers. In the project to be carried out later in November, however, the ministry will select participants from applicants and handle shipments to be consigned by them on a block train from Japan to Europe.
It is scheduled the trial transport will begin when departing Yokohama on Nov. 6 and arrive in Vladivostok on Nov. 13, where containers will be relayed to a railway service. The block train will, then, leave Vladivostok on Nov. 18 and reach Europe in early December.
The railway will be responsible for the route from Vladivostok to Brest, Belarus by way of Moscow. From the border between Belarus and Poland (Brest and Malaszewicze) to Europe, shipments will be carried by rail or truck.
A group of nine freight forwarders and one shipping company will move a total of 24 40-foot and six 20-foot containers.
