OREANDA-NEWS. On April 11, 2007 at the meeting, Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, gave a presentation, during which he said that “implementing the Development Strategy of Rail Transport up to 2030 requires spending nearly 10 trillion roubles, of which Russian Railways can only raise nearly 5,3 trillion roubles. I would stress that these funds are needed not just to support the operations of the rail network, but also to build new rail infrastructure”, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

According to Yakunin, if energetic measures to modernise infrastructure and renew the rolling stock are not taken by 2011, rail transport could become a factor braking, rather than promoting Russia’s economic growth.

In addition, the further integration of Russia’s railways in the global transport system requires implementing a series of measures, many of which are the prerogative of the state.
“We have to work out and implement a balanced state protection programme for transit freight,” said Yakunin. “In our opinion, this has to include creating a special customs regime for the biggest freight owners, deregulating tariffs for shipping freight on transit routes, supporting the efforts of Russian Railways to form a unified logistics chain of transit traffic and the import and export of freight flows and speeding up the construction and modernisation of rail border crossings with neighbouring states.”

“The most important element in attracting more international transit traffic to the Russian rail network is the reconstruction of the Trans-Korean Main Line, which will allow additional freight flows of at least 100,000 containers per annum,” continued Yakunin. “Here, above all, state support is necessary for the reconstruction of the rail stretch between Khasan in Russia, Port Radjin in North Korea and the port of Radjin itself. Initially, this project will have to be financed from the federal budget, with an international consortium formed later.”

According to Yakunin, all the measures listed “have to be incorporated systematically into the government’s Development Strategy of Russia’s Rail Sector up to 2030.”

Russian Railways proposes dividing this strategy into two stages. During the first stage, up to 2015, a thorough modernisation of rail transport must be carried out.

During the second stage, from 2016 to 2030, the most important strategic, socially important and freight lines totalling over 20,000 kilometres must be built, including the 3,500-kilometre transcontinental line from the Right Bank of the River Lena to Zyryanka and Yelen, which has access to the Bering Straits, the construction of a rail link between mainland Russian and Sakhalin Island, and the important line in the Urals’ polar region from the River Ob to Polynochnoe and Labytnangi - Salakhard - Nadym.

According to Yakunin, implementing these projects, in addition to government investments, requires solving the problems of subsidies to the loss-making passenger sector in long-distance and suburban traffic and of discounts to students and schoolchildren. At the same time, the integrity of rail infrastructure with regard to the Company’s own power supplies has to be maintained.

“In our view, the plan we are now putting forward can be approved as the basis for working out a Development Strategy of Russia’s Rail Sector up to 2030,” said Yakunin in conclusion.