{"id":432319,"date":"2026-05-19T19:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=71236"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:04:19","slug":"russia-doubles-price-of-rail-freight-to-historically-dependent-eu-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=432319","title":{"rendered":"Russia doubles price of rail freight to historically dependent EU neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia is doubling rail freight tariffs for transport to Estonia, Latvia and Finland. The targeting of these countries is probably no coincidence, considering their historical dependence on Russia for the rail freight market.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>In particular, the measure will apply to transportation of goods in the direction of the land border crossings with Latvia, Estonia and Finland, as well as with Belarus (in the case of onward travel to Latvia and Estonia), write Russian media. The measure does not apply to the third Baltic country, Lithuania, or transit to Russia\u2019s exclave Kaliningrad.<\/p>\n

The rail freight market in the Baltic countries and Finland has historically been tied to trade flows to and from Russia. This is the case not only due to their proximity, but also because the rail networks were initially built to be connected to Russia. With the introduction of sanctions, many of these freight flows collapsed, leaving the rail freight operators with severely declined transport volumes. The rail freight volume in the Baltics dropped from over 130 million tonnes to 52 million tonnes over the course of only five years.<\/p>\n

It seems \u2014 speculatively speaking \u2014 plausible that Russia is targeting these countries on purpose. The rail freight operators in the region are vulnerable: they have already had to reduce their workforces and go through restructuring. The Estonian operator Operail was sold off to a private party, because the state could not sustain its losses.<\/p>\n