OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2011. The President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin gave a conference call, during which he summed up the Company’s performance during the first half of 2011, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

"Since the beginning of the year, total turnover on the rail network, including empty private and rented wagons, was over 1.33 trillion ton-kilometres, 10% more than in the first half of 2010," said Yakunin.

According to Yakunin, during the first half of 2011, the Company shipped about 608 million tons of freight, up 4% on the same period last year.

This year, the Company’s construction side faces a number of major tasks. The priorities here are:

constructing facilities in Sochi

developing the railway approaches to ports and Russian Railways’ transit facilities

increasing through capacity on the rail network

"According to the latest figures, the Company invested 126.6 billion roubles during IH2011," said Yakunin.

A series of major infrastructure projects were also commissioned in IH2011, including:

opening the reconstructed Grand Novorossiysk Tunnel on North Caucasus Railways

completion of the main work on the main culvert on the Kuznetsovsky Tunnel on Far Eastern Railways ahead of schedule

the electrified section on the stretch Karymskaya – Olodyannaya on Transbaikal Railways.

According to the President of Russian Railways, the Company's activities during the current year will focus on:

developing high-speed passenger services between St. Petersburg - Buslovskaya – second stage freight services

the comprehensive reconstruction of the stretch between Mga - Gatchina – Vaimarn - Ivangorod and the railway approaches on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland

the comprehensive reconstruction of the stretch between Kotelnikov-Tikhoretskaya - Korenovsk - Timashevskaya – Krimskaya, with a bypass around the Krasnodar hub on North Caucasus Railways

reconstructing the stretch between Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan, with the construction of a new Kuznetsovsky Tunnel

the comprehensive reconstruction of the stretch between Karymskaya – Zabaikalsk.