Business news

19 Feb 2021

Belarus suggests stepping up railway service, air service with Russia

MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia are interested in further restoring passenger transportation between the two countries, the press service of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry told BelTA.

The 18th session of the coordination commission in charge of forming and ensuring the operation of the joint transport system of the Union State of Belarus and Russia took place in Moscow on 19 February. The commission was headed by Belarusian Transport and Communications Minister Aleksei Avramenko and Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev.

The sides discussed further resumption of passenger transportation among other things. In particular, positive dynamics in the gradual resumption of passenger transportation by rail and by air was noted. Due to multiple appeals of Belarusian citizens Belarus suggested increasing the frequency of Minsk-Moscow trains and organizing daily stops in Orsha in addition to resuming train service all the way to St Petersburg and Adler.

The sides noted interest in continuing the resumption of transportation by air to pre-pandemic levels. Belarus also suggested increasing the number of flights on existing lines and resuming flights to such popular destinations as Kaliningrad and Sochi. The Russian side is ready to work on these possibilities.

As for transportation by road, the possibility of Russia’s raising trucking quotas for transporting goods from and to third countries for Belarusian companies was raised.

Apart from that, the sides discussed the fulfillment of previous decisions on forming and ensuring the operation of the joint transport system of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and the development of a draft action plan on stepping up efforts in this avenue of cooperation in 2022-2024.

The sides agreed that the next session of the coordination commission will take place in Belarus in late 2021 or early 2022.