Belarusian and Latvian Railways to outline areas of joint work in 2013

The heads of the Belarusian and Latvian Railways met in Riga to sum up the work in 2012 and discuss cooperation prospects in 2013. The parties examined the passenger and cargo traffic from Belarus to Latvia and in the opposite direction.
One of the examples of effective cooperation on attracting additional traffic flows is the ZUBR cargo container train, a joint project of the railway administrations of Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine. The train service has connected the ports of Latvia and Estonia and the Black Sea ports. In addition, in 2012 Moldova joined the project. As a result, in 2012 ZUBR carried more than 10,600 20ft containers, up 4 times from 2011.
Speaking of passenger traffic between Belarus and Latvia, the press service noted that it has been on the rise. Over the past year the Minsk- Riga-Minsk ridership made up almost 31,000 people, up 43% as against a year earlier.
The parties will continue working to make the rail traffic from Belarus to Latvia more attractive. It pertains to high-speed routes Minsk-Riga-Minsk, reduction of time spent at the border stations and improvement of service quality.