Company experts made that reassuring conclusion from analyses of Kaliningrad Railway performance within the first five days since Lithuania and Poland gained official EU membership.
The Kaliningrad Railway routine is just as it was, on general opinion of its freight and commercial experts, and the transportation service. More than 8,000 cars have taken 131,000 tonnes of freights via landed checkpoints on Russia's frontiers with Poland and Lithuania, says a company statement.
However, freight transits for early April exceeded their analogues for May's start roughly by 15,000 tonnes-mainly due to shrinking foodstuff shipments. Kaliningrad Railway experts ascribe it to Lithuania toughening frontier veterinary inspection standards, and to consignors having to change accompanying document patterns. The matter is all the more complicated as the European Union has not yet unified its import/transit veterinary inspection standards. Besides, Lithuania has raised veterinary inspection fees by $30 a car.
Despite all that, transit forecasts for the next ten to fifteen days are very optimistic. Transits will certainly grow as the Kaliningrad Transit, a special electronic customs declaration system, is introduced following May 10. It will make freight train frontier and customs inspections 30-40 minutes quicker than now, say experts.
