OREANDA-NEWS. September 05, 2011. Vadim Mikhailov, Senior Vice-President at Russian Railways, held a press conference on "Investment Prospects in Rail Transport to 2015", reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

"Over the past year, we have substantially revised the format of our investment programme and made it transparent and understandable. It now consists of several sections. The first is a government programme, such as Olympic construction projects and the construction of an intermodal connection to airports in Vladivostok and Kazan. The next section is the most important for us and is dedicated to transport security. The third section is all about increasing the population’s transportation mobility, which entails first and foremost the development of the commuter segment, the removal of infrastructural bottlenecks across the whole country, the acquisition of rolling stock and other projects. This format has been approved by all the relevant ministries," said the Senior Vice-President.

Mikhailov noted that in 2011, Russian Railways placed 20-year Eurobonds denominated in pounds sterling for the first time. The total volume amounted to 650 million pounds.

"The Eurobond issues showed that foreign investors entrust their money to Russian Railways for such a long period of time. We are ready with both our own and borrowed funds, which we can attract by virtue of our covenants and tariff policy, to get involved ourselves and invest in projects lasting up to 20 years. Every project lasting over 20 years is a strategic task for the state," said

Vadim Mikhailov, who also added that Russian Railways had submitted calculations on the budget efficiency of government investment in infrastructure to ministries and agencies.