Changes to the Agreement concerning the Relationships between Carriers in respect of International Freight Traffic by Rail (SMGS) and freight traffic manuals on this agreement will take effect on July 1, 2015, and the possibility of carrying out international transportation within one state by several carriers or one carrier using infrastructure of several states will appear.

The press service of the State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) has reported that the changes expand the list of legal carriers, infrastructure managers and owners of wagons, and that the interaction of the SMGS system with the CIM uniform rules has been improved.

The new Agreement on International Freight Traffic by Rail defines the role of infrastructure and its manager as an agent of the carrier, which allows the carrier to sign an agreement on the use of infrastructure, and the senders and receivers do not have to build legal relations with the infrastructure managers.

"In addition, the changes to SMGS and freight traffic manuals allowed for facilitating the conditions for shipping freight by rail and ferries – earlier it was required to create a separate package of documents, including intergovernmental agreements signed," Ukrzaliznytsia said.

The decision to amend SMGS and freight traffic manuals was made on June 6, 2014 at an extraordinary meeting of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT).

SMGS participants are Azerbaijan, Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, Georgia, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia and Slovakia.