OREANDA-NEWS.The railway congress Development 2030 which on October 24 opened in Moscow is the biggest and most representative event of its kind in the 170-year history of Russia's railways, the press center of the Russian Railways informs.

The forum brings together not only railway administrators and managers, but also representatives from government and business to discuss the future of Russian rail transport over the long term until 2030. Leading Russian politicians are are participating in the work of congress, including Sergey Ivanov, first deputy prime minister of Russia, Alexander Zhukov, Russian deputy prime minister, Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the Russian State Duma, and Igor Levitin, minister of transport, as well as Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, and other officials.

Also taking part are representatives from the 17 regional divisions of Russian Railways, CIS and international railway companies and authorities and top managers from major Russian and foreign companies, banks, financial and industrial groups, as well as heads of Russian ministries and agencies.
In all, more than 4,000 people have arrived to take part in the forum. The discussions at the congress are focused on the government's Strategy for the Development of Rail Transport in the Russian Federation to 2030.

"The development of railways is a fairly long-term process, and major investments in infrastructure are crucial to the development of many industrial sectors," said Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways. "Technologies and production capacity do not appear overnight, but Russia's railways are already suffering from a serious shortage of modern rolling stock, for example. Another problem is the extremely low level of transport provision in many regions and the absence of transport access to promising mineral deposits and areas of economic growth. A failure to develop rail transport in Russia would lead to an abrupt slowdown in the country's economic growth. It is, therefore, very important that the Strategy gained full support from the leaders of Russia's federal and local regions, as well as from the Russian government, which approved it on September 6.

The Strategy provides for two development stages of rail transport. The first stage, which is scheduled to run between 2008 and 2015, provides for the radical modernisation of the rail sector's production base in order to remove all the existing bottlenecks and ensure that the railways can meet the growing demand for cargo and passenger transportation.

The implementation of the second stage from 2016 to 2030 envisages a radical increase in Russia's transport security from a dynamic expansion of the rail network. This should in turn open up new prospects for the development of Russia's regions and industry, thus stimulating economic growth in new areas.
If Russia implements the maximum version of the Strategy, it will build more than 20,000 km of new lines by 2030 and purchase over 23,000 new locomotives, nearly 1 million freight rail cars, about 30,000 passenger coaches and over 24,000 suburban trains to handle the growing volumes of transportation. Freight traffic will increase by 70% and passenger turnover by 30%.

The total investment required to implement strategy under the maximum version is 13.7 trillion roubles, of which 10.6 trillion roubles will go towards the development of the general transport, and 3.1 trillion roubles to specific purposes.Over 43% of the total investment will be provided by Russian Railways, nearly 33% by private investors, 19.5% by the Russian government and 4.6% by the Russian regions.