Russia, China to accelerate construction of second rail line at Zabaikalsk-Manchuria crossing, discuss growth of rail freight shipments

MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) and China Railways signed an agreement on comprehensive strategic cooperation on Thursday, RZD reported.

The companies have agreed to accelerate the implementation of the project to build a second main rail line with a gauge of 1435 mm at the Zabaikalsk-Manchuria border crossing; develop existing railway border crossings between Russia and China and infrastructure on approaches to them; promote the development of shipments of mail and e-commerce freight on regular container trains; increase shipments of frozen meat and poultry products in refrigerated containers; and increase shipments of grain freight to China through the Zabaikalsk-Manchuria crossing, including with loading at the Zabaikalsk grain terminal.

The document was signed in Beijing following a meeting between RZD chief executive Oleg Belozerov and China Railways chairman Liu Zhenfang held during President Vladimir Putin's visit to China.

The companies are also discussing increasing freight shipments between the two countries.

"We are seeing high rates of growth of freight shipments on services with China. In the first quarter, overall shipments through our railway border crossings and ports increased by 8.2% compared to the same period of 2023, to 42.5 million tonnes," Belozerov was quoted as saying in the press release.

RZD proposed to China Railways to expand the practice of forming container trains from cars headed from one departure station in China to one destination station in Russia to a specific terminal; develop parity container transfer technology at neighboring border stations using flatcars made available after unloading on the delivering side; as well as consider developing Chinese infrastructure to increase the length of trains, including container trains.