“The aim of the exoskeletons trial is to get as many employees as possible to try them out, and their personal experiences and opinions will be assessed”, LTG said. The initiative will involve employees from different LTG Groups: the freight division LTG Cargo, the infrastructure manager LTG Infra, the passenger division LTG Link and the Railway Construction Centre.

The whistles are expected to help reduce environmental risks, contribute to the preservation of biodiversity, and reduce economic losses. Besides the environmental and ethical challenges, wildlife collisions also result in traffic disruptions and significant financial losses, such as the costs of rolling stock repairs and railway infrastructure maintenance or compensation for losses suffered by passengers.

Tried and tested

“Taking into account the experience of railway companies in foreign countries – Poland, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Hungary – it has been found that sound and visual deterrents can reduce the number of collisions with wild animals by as much as 85–93%”, says LTG. “Although it is currently impossible to completely eliminate the risk of collisions, it is expected to assess the effectiveness of the selected sound measure.”

The pilot project primarily uses the SIREN7 equipment, produced by a Hungarian manufacturer. This system has a proven track record, having been successfully tested on PKP Intercity trains in Poland. In Lithuania, 13 LTG Link trains are already equipped with SIREN7, and by autumn, 16 LTG Cargo mainline locomotives will also be integrated into the project.

Visual measures

An early test has come back with positive results: No negative effects were observed, and according to the drivers, wild animals react faster and move away from the tracks, according to LTG. The final results of the pilot project will be evaluated in the second half of 2026.

LTG also plans to test visual measures next year. Those include special animal-repellent reflectors installed along a dozen kilometres of tracks.

Wascosa has signed up LTG Cargo Polska as a client for its stock of NiKRASA 3.0 cradles. The parties say the deal will enhance their cooperation and boost Baltic trade. The focus of the development is intermodal rail freight between Lithuania and Western Europe. This partnership will mainly use the transport corridor between Kaunas in Lithuania and Duisburg in Germany, taking trucks off the busy roads.

Modal shift to rail

“Germany is one of Lithuania’s largest trading partners, underscoring the importance of the Kaunas-Duisburg intermodal connection,” explained Wascosa in a formal statement. LTG Cargo Polska, which is a subsidiary of the Lithuanian rail freight company LTG Cargo, has a long-term strategy to strengthen its position as the Baltic States’ gateway to Western Europe. The company is actively engaged in expanding intermodal transport capability, not least for commercial advantage, but also to offer efficient and environmentally friendly logistics options.

As reported by our sister service, WorldCargo News, Wascosa has been marketing the NiKRASA system since signing a deal with the manufacturers earlier this year. “This innovation supports the growing demand for combined transport,” says Wascosa, the Swiss-established rail freight rolling stock company, currently celebrating its 60th anniversary year. “The cooperation also aligns with LTG Cargo’s broader sustainability strategy, which has already led to significant achievements: in 2023, intermodal shipments prevented 66,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions.”

Third generation is even more versatile

Iris Hilb, CEO of Wascosa AG, is enthusiastic about the latest agreement with LTG. “Wascosa AG is equally committed to driving innovation in rail freight logistics,” she said. “The NiKRASA solution fits perfectly into our market strategy, providing value to customers while supporting the ongoing shift towards rail transport. According to estimates by the leasing company, around 90% of Europe’s truck fleet is non-craneable. Wascosa further says that the NiKRASA system enables trailers to be loaded from road to rail in just two minutes without requiring changes to existing terminal or rail infrastructure.

The NiKRASA system for trailer handling was developed by TX Logistics, a subsidiary of Mercitalia Group. The third and more flexible iteration of the system was released just over two years ago, At the time, Wascosa entered into a marketing deal, which ultimately saw the Swiss leasing company purchase 150 units. The agreement allows non-craneable semi-trailers to be loaded onto rail wagons quickly and easily. LTG claims to be the only rail carrier with the necessary licenses to operate in both Poland and the Baltics.

This announcement is not the first example of cooperation between Lithuania and Ukraine in the context of rail freight. At the end of 2023, UZ and LTG Cargo set up a container service linking Kyiv to Kaunas to offer an alternative to the road blockades on the Ukraine-Poland border. Moreover, the two companies cooperated with Ukrainian logistics company Global Ocean Link to start transporting semi-trailers on the rail via the same route.

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Lithuania and Ukraine’s expansion plans

For example, UZ is cooperating with RCG also for a new service between Kyiv and Vienna, which should be operative by the end of this year. In addition, in July, the company set up a new subsidiary to enter the European market: UZ Cargo Poland. The first service operated by the new company between Ukraine and Poland is connecting Gdansk with Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, and Vinnytsia. LTG and its subsidiary LTG Cargo are also working towards increasing its international presence. The company’s Ukrainian branch, LTG Cargo Ukraine, is slowly picking up pace again after significant slowdowns caused by the Russian invasion of Kyiv.

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As the Lithuanian IM highlighted, the new facility will boost the shift from road to rail when it comes to military transportation. Currently, the loading of military vehicles, oversized and bulk cargo, takes place at the Sestokai terminal, near the Lithuanian border with Poland. However, these cargo types are then transported by road. The new facility near Kaunas will therefore provide a rail connection for these services to the heart of Lithuania, providing additional capacity as well.

The Baltics at the centre of the EU Military Mobility fund

The terminal in Palemonas is already somewhat accustomed to the transportation of military equipment. In May 2022, US troops loaded their military equipment at the facility for the first time as part of the EU Military Mobility fund. In April 2022, the European Union allocated 160 million euros via the fund to improve rail infrastructure for military and civilian purposes.

When it comes to the Baltic States, Estonia was granted 31 million euros for the enhancement of the rail connection to the country’s largest military base in Tapa. Latvia received 5 million euros to integrate the military mobility requirements in the Latvian part of the Rail Baltica project.

With the 13 million given to Lithuania, the Baltic States received almost one-third of the funds made available by the EU Military Mobility program last spring. In December 2022, the total investment in the Military Mobility fund was increased from 330 to 616 million euros. However, it is not clear if this translated to increased investment specifically for rail as well.

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Kerza added that seven more wagons were seized on the same night in Marijampole and were also sent back to Belarus. All the detained cargo passed through the Kena border crossing. Kerza added that three more wagons have been detained on the Lithuanian border with Belarus but a decision is still pending.

LTG Cargo’s new rules

Since the beginning of March, LTG Cargo’s customers must provide additional documentation concerning cargo transported on the broad gauge in advance. As LTG Cargo explained, part of the cargo information was collected and checked only after it entered Lithuania. From now on, the amount of information provided at the approval stage will significantly expand, making it easier to identify possible violations.

The company claims it is ready to keep suspending shipments if there is any suspicion of attempts to smuggle illegal goods or if customers refuse to provide additional documents. Moreover, in mid-February, the country decided to close the Stasylos-Byenyakoni rail border crossing with Belarus. This was because of increasing discoveries of illegal cargo being transported via Lithuania to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. This decision was justified by the absence of proper X-ray checking devices at the site.

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Over the past few months, in fact, the Lithuanian border guards had to deal with episodes of smuggling illegal cargo and wagons branded with pro-Russia symbols. The illegal cargo, bound for Kaliningrad, was seized while the illegal wagons were set back to Kaliningrad and Belarus respectively.

Stasylos site to stay closed until anti-smuggling tech is updated

Belsat also said that Lithuanian customs officials confirmed that the closing of the Stasylos-Byenyakoni rail border crossing is a temporary solution. However, there is no reopening date set for now. The Kena-Gudogai rail border crossing remained open because it can count on better x-ray technologies to ensure better controls and prevent smuggling in a more effective manner.

The Lithuanian Customs, in collaboration with LTG Infra, placed an x-ray control system at the Kena customs railway post on the border with Belarus. Back in October 2022, LTG Infra’s CEO told RailFreight.com that two x-ray scanners would be installed at the Stasylos-Byenyakoni border crossing, as well as in Kybartai, bordering Kaliningrad. As Agne Bilotaite, the Lithuanian Minister of Internal Affairs was quoted saying by Lithuania media, the Stasylos site will reopen once the scanners will be implemented.

Lithuania canceled cooperation agreement with Belarus as well

Lithuania will stop collaborating with Belarus under the Cross-Border Cooperation Program, as the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs said at the end of January. The State Border Committee of Belarus pointed out on Telegram that Lithuanian authorities did not specify the reasons for their unilateral decision to terminate the collaboration.

However, the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport did claim that “the Government’s decision was taken in the light of the political situation in Belarus following the fraudulent 2020 presidential elections, Lukashenko regime’s instrumentalisation of migration against EU countries and its involvement in the war against Ukraine.” Already in 2020, Lithuania suspended all payments to Belarus and its partners under the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme. This agreement was signed in June 2006.

Not only Lithuania: Poland is isolating Belarus as well

Lithuania is not the first country to close one of its border crossings with Belarus. On 10 February, for example, Poland closed the road border crossing with Belarus near Bobrowniki. A source from Lithuania told RailFreight.com that only the road border crossing would be closed here, with the rail one nearby, around Kuznica, remaining open.

Currently, as mentioned by Reuters, only two of the six border crossings between Poland and Belarus are operational. Poland’s decision came after a journalist belonging to a Polish minority in Belarus, Andrzej Poczobut, was arrested in January in Belarus and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment. Prior to the sentence, according to the Polish government, Poczobut spent 500 days in detention in Belarus.

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Diplomatic tension

LTG’s Chinese office closure indicates that Lithuanian Silk Road traffic is going through a crisis. Yet the war in Ukraine and the diversification of east/west traffic resulting from sanctions on Russia and Belarus is not the only reason. One could argue that this was the final blow to Lithuanian Silk Road connections.

Problems started much earlier. Specifically, the first clouds on Lithuania’s Eurasian business appeared in August 2021, more than a year ago, when its government openly confronted the Chinese on the matter of Taiwan. It was around that time that Lithuania and Taiwan announced their intention to strengthen their bonds by opening representative offices in each country. However, China was not pleased with the development and withdrew its ambassador from Lithuania while it called the Baltic state to do the same.

Politics infiltrate transport

It didn’t take much time for the fragile diplomatic relations of Lithuania and China to impact Eurasian transport links. In just a few days, information about a stoppage of China trains heading to Lithuania started to make headlines. The two sides kept contradicting each other, with China claiming that politics would not affect rail transport and Lithuania claiming that it doesn’t receive Chinese trains anymore.

The truth was somewhere in the middle. Indeed, China-Europe trains did not stop transiting through Lithuania to Kaliningrad. Nevertheless, they no longer stopped on Lithuanian grounds, practically excluding Lithuania from the Silk Road. In the past, trains used to stop in Vilnius to load and unload containers. This was no option anymore since trains continued directly to Kaliningrad, with containers destined for the Lithuanian market getting unloaded at the border crossing between Lithuania and Kaliningrad and, from there, transported back to Vilnius by trucks.

Further escalation

With bilateral relations between the two countries on a tightrope and Lithuania not considered a Silk Road destination by China anymore, the situation remained stable for almost a year. That was until mid-August 2022, when China decided to stop cooperating with Lithuania in international transport and sanction any cooperation with the country in response to a Lithuanian official’s visit to Taiwan.

Industry specialists ensured that this would not affect the China-Europe trains to Kaliningrad, as it didn’t in the first place. However, combined with the traffic stoppage to and from Russia, China’s sanctioning of Lithuania seemed like the last straw in the country’s position on the Silk Road. It may not have impacted the already non-existent transport links, yet it signalled that this was officially the end.

A new era?

LTG closing its China office might signal the end of an era. However, its executives see this as a new opportunity. On the one hand, the company focuses more on building closer ties within the European market and with Ukraine.

On the other, it sees Kazakhstan as its new gateway to reach the Far East and Central Asia. Will this strategy be successful? The approach is interesting enough from a route perspective. How will Eurasian trains transit between Lithuania and Kazakhstan with the Russian route blocked? Will LTG Cargo Polska and LTG Cargo Ukraine play a role in moving cargo towards the Black Sea and from there via the Middle Corridor to Kazakhstan? These are some questions worth following up on.

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‘Nothing we can do’

LTG received a pre-payment of 2,5 million euros worth of Russian cargo for the next three weeks. It is a profitable business, but the Lithuanian state-owned rail company will not pledge to keep it running. Egidijus Lazauskas, CEO of LTG, commented in Lithuanian media that trains could stop if customers fail to comply with payments to Lithuanian banks.

“Yes, this can happen, but we are not going to tear our shirts off because of that,” cited Lazauskas in the Lithuanian National Radio and Television LRT. He also added that “transit is profitable, but we have made a strategic decision to sever relations with the Eastern market within a few years and are actively looking for alternatives.”

Complex situation

After several Lithuanian banks dropped out and stopped processing payments for Russian shipments a few weeks ago, LTG found itself racing to make ends meet and help keep payments and trains moving. However, Lazauskas explained that this was a mission impossible since out of all Lithuanian banks, only one is willing to continue processing Russian payments. At the same time, European banks abroad were also unwilling to open new accounts for LTG and process the payments.

As the situation is now, LTG is pushed by the FNTT to scrutinise each customer request for transit to Kaliningrad individually. In this way, the international service aims to assist LTG in assessing whether a shipment is eligible according to the EU sanctions and whether payments for it can take place. It might be a good solution regarding compliance with the law; nevertheless, it is also a time-consuming and customer-unfriendly process.

The same process will be followed by Šiaulių bankas, the only Lithuanian bank still willing to get involved in Russian transit payments. The situation’s complexity is not different from what Lazauskas described as uncertainty about whether shipments could continue without problems in the future. In the coming three weeks, trains will keep running; however, will this be the case after September ends?

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