OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2008. “In 5 years we have become a market-oriented company whose mission is to ensure the growing demand for economic and social progress s while ensuring the reliability and safety of the transportation process,” Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, told a press conference to mark the five years of the company’s existence, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The President of Russian Railways also said that a Company priority was to ensure the stable operation and development of the railway industry.

“The Company invested more than 800 billion roubles in rail development between 2003 and 2007. Our 2008 Investment Programme provides for a further outlay of 398 billion roubles,” said Vladimir Yakunin.

According to Yakunin, over the previous five years, Russian Railways had improved its performance on key indicators.

“In the last 5 years, we have reduced cargo shipping times, delivery times for each individual item and reduced the average turnaround time for freight wagons. During this period, we shipped more than 6.4 billion tons of goods,” said Vladimir Yakunin.

Yakunin also focused on the growth of passenger traffic. “Since the foundation of the Company five years ago we have significantly increased passenger turnover, which has risen from 113.9 to 129.2 billion passenger-kilometres on long-distance routes and from 38.2 to 46.3 billion passenger-kilometres on suburban services,” said Vladimir Yakunin.

The company has also devoted much time and effort to developing business relations with international business partners and railways.

“We are actively expanding cooperation with our colleagues at the railway administrations of the CIS countries and the Baltic States and in Europe, the East and Africa. And we are setting up joint ventures and implementing large-scale projects in construction and in the supply of rolling stock. All this creates the conditions for the integration of Russia’s railways into the global transportation network,” said Yakunin.