OREANDA-NEWS. June 08, 2011. The President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin took part in a working meeting between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and delegates to the VI International Rail Business Forum: 1520 Strategic Partnership, which was held in Sochi, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The meeting of heads of the railway business from countries using the 1520mm broad-gauge track was chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and took place at the end of the Forum.
Among the issues discussed was that of maximising the transit potential of Russia and the Common Economic Space as the shortest land route between Europe and the Asia Pacific Region and between Europe and the CIS.

"Setting up a major international logistics operator for transit goods between East and West with capital being invested by a wide range of partners interested in the development of competitive rail shipments by land would enable us to offer the market a straight-through product," said Vladimir Yakunin.

At the moment, the flow of transit shipments using containers through Russian ports is minimal, but a major logistics operator would be able to develop such shipments by land, actively promote its services to the market and control the quality of delivery of each element.

"Rail carriers are experiencing strong competition from both road and sea transport on through-routes between Europe and Asia. In order to develop the logistics business, it is necessary to solve the most important task - abolish government regulation of tariffs on transit containers by rail and ensure their maximum flexibility," said Vladimir Yakunin.

The meeting also raised the issue of subsidies for rail shipments by small and medium-sized businesses. Shippers put forward suggestions for specific mechanisms, such as federal and regional subsidies.

Other priority tasks mentioned in developing rail transport included the fundamental technical and technological modernisation of basic production assets, the elimination of bottlenecks to meet the demand for freight transport, taking into account the prospects for regional industrial development, and the implementation of development plans for high-speed passenger services.