Western Shipyard is currently repairing the ship, which will start sailing in the Russian Strategic ferry shipping line this autumn.

Ferry service will operate

Russian and German Transport Ministers have agreed that the ferry line Ust Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran will start operating in September of this year. The German subsidiary railway company "Railion Deutschland AG" takes care of the opening of the line.

The opening of the line has already been postponed two times. The attempts of making coordinated business with the Russian railways have been unsuccessful. The delay has also been a result of experts‘ provision about the fact that the project will become attractive before the crisis ends.

Currently, cargo turnover between Russia and West European ports is growing rapidly.
The opening of the line Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitaz/Mukran is Russia‘s dream-come-true to detour Klaipeda International Ferry Terminal, built in Soviet times, where the main route was just to Sassnitz/ Mukran.

From Russian Ust-Luga port and Baltijsk port to Germany, cargo will be transported mainly by rail wagons. Sassnitz / Mukran port was built in order to take Russian 1520 mm gauge railway wagons.

Rebuilding Ferry in Klaipeda

To service the line Ust-Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran, Russian shipping company has bought the ferry "Runner" from the Finnish "Finnlines". The ferry was renamed to "Ambal".

Built in 1990 in Germany, the ferry of 189.7 meters long and 22 meters wide was designed to carry rail freight. It may take 1989 meters of freight wagons. The ice class ship achieves a speed of 18.9 knots.

Currently, Western Shipyard is rebuilding the ship cargo deck and the width of the railway gauge is being changed. The works are on schedule. The ferry must be submitted to the customer in August.

The Commercial Director of "Western Ship-repair"'s subsidiary company "Western Shipyard", Viktoras Cernusevicius said that the Russians plan on buying another ferry, which is likely to be used in the same line Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran. After having successfully restructured the ferry "Ambal", Western Shipyard expects the second order of ferry repair.

"Vilnius" pulled back

The Sea Ferry in Ust Luga was opened in autumn 2006. It was planned from the outset to run the line Ust Luga-Baltiysk and the German ports. However, as always, something gets stagnated in Russia. Having failed to install the passage stations on time, direct shipping from Ust Luga to Germany had not been possible for a few years.

Since December 2007, the ferry "Baltiysk" began sailing between Ust-Luga and Baltijsk in Kaliningrad region. In 2008, the ferry made 66 flights and transported 443 thousand tons of cargo.

At the same time, the line Baltiysk-Sassnitz was opened. It was served by "DFDS Lisco" ferry "Vilnius". This company was chosen by the German part, as it had had the experience of working with it.

Since January 2009, due to the growth in trade between Russia and Germany, the flight number between Sassnitz and Baltijsk increased. This was also conditioned by the fact that the German companies "Railion" and "Schenker" take part in the project of supplying Russia with high-speed "Siemens" trains. Adapted to Russia, the trains "Velaro Rus" were carried to Baltiysk by the ferry "Vilnius” and from there to Ust-Luga by the ferry "Baltijsk".

There is no doubt that the third attempt to open the line Ust Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran, which will be held in September, will be successful. At the end of last year, it was yet considered that the ferry "Vilnius" could fly the route "Sassnitz-Baltiysk-Ust Luga-Baltiysk-Sassnitz-Klaipeda". However, such a route could not be coordinated. The ferry "Vilnius" sailing between Baltijsk and Sassnitz/ Mukran was suspended earlier this year.

From 1 July of this year, the ferry "Vilnius" flies the route Klaipeda-Sassnitz three times per week. At the same time, Russian companies are preparing new ships, which will operate between "Ust Luga-Baltijsk and Sassnitz".

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has indicated to steadily increase the turnover of the line Ust Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran even by several times. The Kaliningrad railwayers claim that to transport goods via the line Ust Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnitz/Mukran is 30 percent cheaper than transporting them via Belarus and Lithuania.