What are the current capacities of Ventspils in handling liquid cargo delivered by rail?
Ventspils port capacities in handling railway cargos have to be considered in three dimensions – technical, economic and political. The technical capacity of Ventspils to accept oil and any other cargo supplied by railway depends, first of all, on the capacity of the Latvian railway company. A few years ago when I was a state trustee on the council of the state-owned Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway) company, we looked at several projects for the development of railway capacity. An increase of throughput on the stretch from Latvia’s eastern border to Ventspils port was one of the priorities set then. This project is being implemented now, and this year Latvijas Dzelzcels will already achieve maximum capacity of deliveries to Ventspils on 35 million tons instead of 20 million tons earlier. At the same time, we are also working to expand railway facilities at Ventspils. This June a new railway station, Juras Parks, with annual capacity of 12 million tons will be put into commission. T
