The Amber Train embarked from Muuga harbour

This morning, the first Amber Train left from the station at Muuga harbour, creating a rail corridor for freights between Northern and Western Europe through the Baltic States.

According to Riina Sikkut, Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure, the Amber Train project is particularly relevant for Estonia at a time where trade flows and transport corridors in the world are being reshaped. “The Amber Train creates a connection between Northern and Western Europe. It provides an additional opportunity to develop freight transport that does not depend on Russia,” said Sikkut.

“Today we are taking a test ride ‒ we’ll see how the loading of goods, border operations and the exchanging of documents and data function,” explained Raul Toomsalu, Chairman of the Management Board at AS Operail.

Scheduled rides on the Muuga-Kaunas-Muuga route will be offered twice a week. Potential clients of the Amber Train include companies that wish to export their goods from Nordic countries or Estonia to Western Europe and vice versa. Until now, goods transported by sea from Finland to Estonia, as well as goods transported from Estonia, have moved through the Baltic States mostly on trucks. The Amber Train aims to bring these goods onto the railway.

Rail transport burns 4 times less fuel, emits 6 times less CO2 and is 28 times safer than road transport.

The Amber Train is a cooperation project between the Baltic countries, led by AS Operail. The cooperation partners include Estonian Railways, Latvian and Lithuanian rail freight transport companies LDZ Cargo and LTG Cargo, loading terminals HHLA TK Estonia in Muuga and Kaunas Intermodal Terminal in Lihtuania.

(Source: https://www.ts.ee/en/the-amber-train-embarked-from-muuga-harbour/)