The European Union provided financial support under the project Improvement of Express Passenger Train Vilnius-Minsk implemented as part of the Lithuania-Latvia-Belarus Cross-Border Cooperation Programme for 2007 – 2013 of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument.

The finances are to be used to purchase and install the GSM-R terminals on the locomotives. The equipment will be manufactured by OJSC AGAT-SYSTEM according to the contract established in October 2014.

34 locomotives are to be equipped with the GSM-R terminals by the end of the first half of 2015. The locomotives will be used in passenger transport on the Minsk-Vilnius route.

The GSM-R communication standard was developed to meet the specific needs of railway transport. The instalment of GSM-R terminals on the locomotives will ensure trouble-free communication between drivers, dispatchers and station duty officers in Belarus and Lithuania, and thus increase passenger safety.

Timeline:

The partnership agreement on cooperation under the project Improvement of Express Passenger Train Vilnius-Minsk was established in December 2014 between Belarusian Railways, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania and JSC Lithuanian Railways. The agreement set out the procedures and regulations of the parties’ cooperation under the project.

Experts at Belarusian Railways and the Lithuanian Railways began collaboration on the project for the arrangement of express passenger transport between Minsk and Vilnius in 2010. The first stage of the project was implemented in 2011, resulting in shorter travel time (from four hours to three). Following the implementation of the second stage of the project, the travel time between the cities was reduced even further to two-and-a-half hours.

The third stage of the project is under implementation.

(Source: Belarusian Railways)