OREANDA-NEWS. On May 05, 2008 in Tehran, the XXIII Conference for Managing Directors (responsible representatives) of the Railway Cooperation Organisation has concluded, , reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

Known as the OSJD from its Russian initials, the Railway Cooperation Organisation was created on June 28, 1956 at a meeting of ministers in charge of rail transport. Members of the OSJD are transport ministry or central government authorities of transport and railways in 27 countries in Europe and Asia.

The Russian delegation was led by Vadim Morozov, First Vice-President of Russian Railways.
During the conference, two separate contracts were signed relating to the use of passenger and freight cars in international transport.

According to Morozov, separate contracts for passenger and freight cars will most effectively regulate the safety of the OSJD railways and allow mutually beneficial deals with economic issues related to the use of freight and passenger cars in international traffic.

In addition, Morozov noted that on March 29, 2008, Russian Railways and Iranian Railways had signed a contract for the electrification of the 50km railway line between Tabriz and Azarshahr.

Depending on the results of this pilot project, the Iranian side will decide on whether to invite Russian Railways to work on the project to electrify the 800km railway between Tehran and Mashhad.

The two sides are also interested in a project to build a new railway line between Qazvin - Resht - Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) to link the overland sections of the North - South International Transport Corridor. The project aims to make the multimodal route across the Caspian Sea more efficient, which is now lower than necessary due to the need to reload freight from rail to the ferry.