2500th Transsiberian container express train leaves for Europe

The 2,500th Transsiberian container express train set on its journey to Western Europe on Tuesday, at a ceremony from Nakhodka-Vostochanaya, a station of the Far Eastern Railway.

The first such train along the Transsiberian went off in April 1998, RIA Novosti was told at the press center of the Far Eastern line of Russia's Ministry of Railways.

Now every day several fast container trains leave Nakhodka in the Primorye Territory. It takes them only 10 days to get from the Pacific coast to West European countries.

The Asia-Europe-Asia container route across Russia is three times shorter than the southern trans-oceanic sea line through the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Suez canal.

A lot has been done in recent years to make the Transsiberian more attractive to foreign businessmen.

In the first eight months of 2003, Nakhodka made up and dispatched 584 fast container trains - 54 per cent more than in 2002, it was noted at the press center.