Lithuania

Within the last ten years, after the restoration of independence in Lithuania, the national transport institutions started the essential work in creating favourable conditions and basis for the overall transport business in Lithuania. This involves the creation of the legal system, its harmonisation with international legal documents as well as the development of road, railway, water and air transport services and infrastructure in the country. In this period the efforts of Lithuanian transport policy were focused on the integration into the international market of transport services and the connection of the Lithuanian railway and road networks to the European systems. The main trends of the development of the transport system were stated in the National transport development programme which was approved by the Government in 1994.

Transport corridors and implications for Lithuania
Lithuanian territory is crossed by International corridor No. 1 in the North-South direction, and by International corridor 9 Branches 9B and 9D in the East-West direction.

Corridor I
Today, the obsolete rail infrastructure on the Polish and Lithuanian stretch of Corridor I as well as the limited and insufficient cargo handling superstructure for rail/rail or rail/truck handling activities at Šeštokai cause potential customers to opt for the road instead of the rail connection on Corridor I. The projected new European standard gauge railway line between Lithuania and Poland (with an option to extend to Riga and Tallinn) passing the Mockava/Šeštokai area will allow to link the industrial area of Kaunas with the central European railway network and definitely will strengthen this rail corridor. Nevertheless, the two current road projects “Via Baltica” and “Via Hanseatica” will further improve the condition for road transport and thus guarantee a competitive market for transport services on this corridor.

Corridor IX
From the port of Klaipeda to the Lithuanian/Belarussian border the east-west railway corridor on Lithuanian territory is currently under rehabilitation. In addition, the rail border station at Kena is being reconstructed. On the already existing motorway between Klaipeda and Vilnius rehabilitation work is progressing. The border crossing station at Kybartai between Russia and Lithuania on the Kaliningrad branch is currently modernised to meet the future needs of road and rail transport on Corridor IX D.

Transit transportation
The volume of the transit freight reloaded through the port of Klaipeda, the main intermodal transport unit, increased from 8.3 million in 1995 to 12.43 million tons in 2000. The volume of freight transported by road transport increased from 2.0 million tons in 1995 to 4.4 million tons in 2000. Tendencies of growth of international transportation have been positive until recently with some fluctuations due to the instability of conditions in forming foreign markets. In 2000 the Klaipeda seaport reloaded 19.4 million tons, 12.43 million tons of which were transit cargo. The main transit freight flows are concentrated in the main lines of international corridors I and IX.

The recently formulated priorities in Lithuania serve for a very important goal, i.e. to prepare properly for the integration into the combined European transportation system in the chains of logistics. Therefore the interests of the potential producers and shippers of the international trade products should be taken into consideration preparing the transport policy and making decisions by all governmental institutions. The government should not only ensure the proper co-ordination of the main infrastructure networks (roads, railway, waterways, logistics terminals) but also regulate the rules and requirements of the market and the minimal standards of quality and safety of transportation.

Conceptual considerations

In accordance with the “National Programme for Transit System Development of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania” and with the resolved development of the Crete Corridors No. I and IX for road, rail and maritime transport  the Lithuanian Government will give priority to the development of these international transport corridors.

In order to promote Lithuania’s position as a key player in east-west cargo transport the establishment of a logistic centre near or in Klaipeda is envisaged; strategically it is located near the international transport corridor IX B where cargo flows from east to west v.v.  The basic idea of the “Klaipeda  Logistic center” (KLC) is on the one hand to promote intermodal transport in Lithuania and on the other to benefit from the large amount of traffic currently transiting Lithuania, by offering (value added) services to transport operators and cargo owners.

Klaipeda Port 

The Port of Klaipeda is located along the east bank of the river connecting the Kursiu Lagoon with the Baltic Sea. Development of infrastructure of the Klaipeda Port will be directed towards:

• deepening of the existing water basin of the Port;
• improvement of the entrance to the Port and protection from waves;
• reconstruction of the existing berths to serve vessels of larger volume;
• construction of new berths.

European Gauge Rail Project - Kaunas Logistics Node

Lithuania attaches a high political importance to the development of the southern part of Corridor I. The construction of a standard European gauge railway from the Lithuanian/Polish border to Kaunas, and a freight handling centre in Kaunas has been defined as the main goal of Lithuanian transport policy to connect Lithuania with Central and Western Europe by a direct railway link. It is the intention that Kaunas should be developed as a freight handling/reloading centre for Lithuania where the interface between broad gauge, European standard gauge and road transport will be located, integrating the most modern telematics concepts. The establishment of the above logistics centre will provide an opportunity to serve road transport cargo units transported by long distance railways, or, in other words, to develop combined transportation in Lithuania.

The weakest links in the current intermodal transport system and a major generator of friction costs, are the points of transfer between modes. One reason is the lack, or inadequacy of technical interoperability between modes and loading units. Another is that present – day terminals, which are usually marked by a combination of heavy engineering  and manual processes, are not managed efficiently with appropriate telematics support.