From the Heartland

The SWIFT transport company has organized a new container service from the Moscow region to China. Shipments are dispatched 2 times a month. The company plans to organize backloading and expand the range of cargo.

The new departure point is the Electrougli station (Moscow mainline). Regular service is now represented by two routes - to Suzhou via the Naushki border crossing (the border between Russia and Mongolia) and to Harbin via the Zabaikalsk border crossing (the border between Russia and China).

The first two trains left in the second half of December. They carried a total of 124 FEUs (40-foot equivalent units) - 62 containers each - of consumer goods and raw materials to China.

SWIFT informed1520 International that in the future the company intends to expand the range of cargo (to transfer equipment) and organize backloading of consumer goods. There are also plans to include another border crossing - Grodekovo (the border between Russia and China) - which is scheduled to be passed through in the near future.

Today, overland routes in communication with China are necessary destinations, said Denis Semenkin, Deputy Chairman of the Association of Railway Rolling Stock Operators. The reorientation of imported container flows to the Naushki and Zabaikalsk border crossings will make it possible to "bypass" the overloaded transport hubs of the Far East.

Moscow in the Spotlight

In terms of container trains, the Moscow transport hub is traditionally one of the busiest, because it serves not only the most densely populated - Moscow and the Moscow region - but also the neighboring regions of Russia (and not only the border ones, but also located 400 km from the region).

However, according to Denis Semenkin, the "peak" load of the Moscow hub is in the pre-New Year and post-New Year periods, and the situation will stabilize by spring.

The solution to this issue is the development of container terminals, for example, in cities with millions of people (Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar) and in economically underdeveloped regions (Tver, Vladimir, Tula regions).

Anna Yakusheva