In October 2017, representatives of the Latvian and Byelorussian Railways during the meeting in Minsk agreed to strengthen coope­ration and to establish the most favourable conditions for both countries for organising freight traffic between Riga and Minsk. During the meeting, an agreement was also reached on the development of a new freight express train Minsk - Riga, which, following the requirements of the customers, will deliver goods from one city to the other within 28 hours. The agreement reached between the heads of the companies provided for the implementation of a pilot project for the opening of the Minsk - Riga route, which began in January 2018, when a train ran from Minsk to Riga in the trial mode. After less than a month, the train set off in the opposite direction.

The freight express train Riga - Minsk was composed of: 21 FEU containers with equipment for the textile industry, 13 wagons with grain and cereals and 3 wagons with metal products. It is important to note that these containers were delivered from India within the framework of cooperation with the German logistics company RTSB GmbH and the Byelorussian forwarding and logistics operator “Belintertrans - Transport and Logistics Center”, which demonstrates the first results achieved in attracting new partners from South Asia.

“In the transport and logistics sphere, great role is played by predictability, accuracy and efficiency. The opening of a freight express train route between the capitals of Latvia and Belarus provides those freight owners who need such a link with a confidence that their cargo will be delivered at a certain time and in accordance with an accurate schedule of freight delivery. The long-term goal is to ensure a regular flow of goods along this route, which has a great potential created by the development of the China-Belarus industrial park “Great Stone”, - said President of the LDZ State JSC Edvins Berzins.

In 2017, the volume of goods transported between Latvia and Belarus along the Indra - Bigosovo railway section increased by 13.9% against 2016 and amounted to 7.7 million tons. The heads of both railway companies intend to continue discussing issues related to the increase in the volume of freight traffic between Latvia and Belarus - both along the new route of Minsk - Riga - Minsk, and along the route of the container train Zubr (Bison).