OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2012. In 2011, Russian Railways invested 15.2 billion roubles in the project "Complex Reconstruction of the Mga - Gatchina - Vaimarn - Ivangorod line and Railway Approaches to Ports on the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland", reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.      

As part of the project, in 2011 156 kilometres of continuous second track were commissioned on the Mga - Gatchina - Vaimarn - Luzhskaya line and the full reconstruction of all stations apart from Mga Station was completed. Work continued on the development of the Luzhskaya railway hub and the approach stations Luzhskaya - Neftyanaya, Luzhskaya - Severnaya and Luzhskaya - Yuzhnaya.

The railway line Mga - Gatchina - Ivangorod - Kotli - Ust-Luga - Kalishche, with an operational length of 271.5 km, provides transportation and economic links of Russia’s North-West and Central Russia with Estonia, and serves the economic and transport needs of the adjacent regions. With the commissioning of port facilities at Luzhska Guba, the line will carry additional freight traffic in the direction of Ust-Luga.

To boost trade between Russia and the EU through the seaport of Ust-Luga, it is necessary to create the necessary conditions by carrying out a full reconstruction of the relevant sections of the railway line. Thus, in accordance with the latest data, the volume of shipments is forecast to reach 40.8 million tons in 2012, 54.1 million tons in 2013, 69.4 million tons in 2014, 84.4 million tons in 2015 and 120.1 million tons in 2020.

The project will increase the electrification on the 44-km Mga - Gatchina line, which is necessary due to the increase in the weight of trains, the longer receiving and departure tracks at 19 stations, the commissioning of 159.1 kilometres of continuous second main tracks, the construction of a railway line bypassing Kotli (4.65 km), the construction of 8 new railway stations and sidings and the electrification of the Gatchina - Ivangorod, Vaimarn - Kotli, Kotli - Ust-Luga and Kotli - Kalishche lines, which have a total length of 180.1 km.

Russian Railways has invested over 45 billion roubles since the beginning of the project (2005-2011).