Russian Railways has plans to negotiate an increase in the number of container trains via Zabaikalsk with Chinese partners to ten ones per day, Deputy CEO Aleksey Shilo told reporters, Trend reports citing TASS.
"We have agreed we will consider eight and will transfer six [container trains per day]. Nevertheless, we would like the cargo transfer plan for Zabaikalsk to contain ten container trains," Shilo said.
There is a high demand for the transfer of container trains. Only 240 container trains can be transferred monthly at the moment, while applications for the Zabaikalsk border crossings is over 1,600 trains per month, the top manager said.
Russian Railways also has reserves for carriage at Kamyshovaya and Nizhneleninskoe - Tongjiang border crossings, Shilo said. "We can send four trains per day more in average to these two border crossings. About 20,000 metric tons is the daily volume we can additionally transfer," he noted.
Rail transportation between China and Russia surged by 68% against the last-year level in January 2023 in view of gradual lifting of COVID restrictions by China.