OREANDA-NEWS. President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin conducted a conference on cooperation with seaports regarding freight transportation.

The conference discussed the prospects for the development of port infrastructure, legal provisions covering the operational side of rail transport and its cooperation with consignors and dockers, and the need to develop through transport and logistics services for freight transport.

Vladimir Yakunin separately outlined problem areas in the cooperation on the logistics process. In particular, the Company’s initiatives to reduce tariffs, he said, could harldly achieve their full intended effect if other participants in the logistics chain increase the cost of their services.

Furthermore, the smooth operation of the chain running through consignor - rail - port must be ensured not only by the transportation process itself, but also by the production cycle of enterprise- consignors, by the adequate development of capacity at the ports and by efficient customs procedures.

As an example of the successful cooperation of ports and railways, the conference noted the work of the Novorossisk sea commercial port, whose representative said that the presence of people from Russian Railways on its Board of Directors greatly facilitated cooperation and the solution of problems between the port and the railways, in particular, to reduce significantly the number of deserted trains.

The representative of Novorossisk port also said it would be expedient to create a controlling company in the form of a joint-stock company where Krasnodar Territory, Novorossisk and Russian Railways could cooperate on the design and development of the Novorossisk transport hub.

Vladimir Yakunin noted in this connection that the Company could examine the possibility of investment to develop the Novorossisk transport hub, provided that this investment was profitable and had a reasonable payback period.