MOSCOW -- The Russian Post has launched its mail delivery service to China by rail, the company announced at its website Monday.

Before this, all mails sent from China to Russia had to be delivered by air or by road.

Opening of the new service is the result of a strategic cooperation agreement signed between authorities representing Russian Railways and Chinese Railways last year.

Packages will be gathered via connected lines inside China before being transported along the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest railway line in the world linking Vladivostok, the Far Eastern Russian city close to the Sino-Russian border, with Moscow.

Railway delivery service reduces excess operations in logistics and will lower transportation costs, the company said. The first batch of mail delivered by rail was sent from Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, to Moscow, the Russian capital, according to the statement posted at the company's website.

The Russian Post also runs mail delivery service by rail between Moscow and Beijing.

The Russian Post added that it plans to expand railway delivery service to more Chinese cities after its new logistical hubs are put into operation in the Russian cities of Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan.