The general director of Turkish State Railways, Suleyman Karaman, and the general manager of Lithuanian Railways, Stasys Dailydka, signed an agreement on cooperation on intermodal transportation of goods in Ankara on September 12.
According to Turkish State Railways, the agreement provides for implementation of a project for creation of a transport corridor linking the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The project, which is called Viking Train, provides for transportation of cargo by block trains from Lithuania to Turkey, through Belarus and Ukraine.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Karaman said, "Goods traveling on a Viking train from Lithuania through the corridor of Belarus and Ukraine will arrive at the Odesa port, where they will be loaded onto ships in containers and transported to the ports of Samsun, Derince, Haydarpasa, Izmir, Iskenderun, Izmir, and Mersin. Subsequently, the goods will be transported from these ports by rail to various regions of Turkey and by the Turkish State Railways’ trains to countries of the Middle East and Central Asia."
"Similarly, goods coming from the Middle East and Central Asia will travel through the same corridor and via the same mechanism to the Baltic countries, from where they will be distributed to European countries."
It was announced that the project would start at the end of this year.
Karaman said that the Viking Train corridor’s second project, which provides for transportation of goods by rail on the Lithuania-Belarus-Ukraine-Romania route, was considered at the meeting.
