OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2013. Russian Railways’ President Vladimir Yakunin summed up the Company’s work in February 2013 during a conference call.

Average daily loading on the rail network in February 2013 increased 0.3% compared to February 2012. According to the head of Russian Railways, the improvement characterised the positive changes in the industry and the economy and the revival of demand for transport.

The loading of several commodities saw particularly strong growth, such as coal, which was up 4.6% in February compared with a less than 1% increase in January, while oil products rose 1.5%, iron and manganese ores 5.9%, cement 13.4% and chemical and mineral fertilisers 5.6%, all of which fell in January.

"Today, the main and most important task in maintaining the Company’s financial stability is to increase revenues from rail freight by growing shipping volumes, improving the composition and type of goods carried and offering better customer service," said Vladimir Yakunin.

In February 2013, the average speed of loaded and empty trains on the rail network was 607 km per day. Compared to January 2013, the speed of trains consisting of loaded wagons increased 3% or 20 km per day to 679 km per day.

The average speed of container trains in February 2013 amounted to 891 km per day, 6 km per day or 0.7% more than in January 2013 and 50 miles per day or 5.9% more than in February 2012.

Vladimir Yakunin paid particular attention to the ongoing issue of operating potentially dangerous products from manufacturers of lateral bogie frames on freight wagons. Since the beginning of this year, 21 cases of fractured lateral frames had already occurred, 5 of which had led to a crash and 12 to derailments of rolling stock.

Yakunin said that the company had declared a month-long campaign "Monitoring Lateral Bogie Frames". In just two days, 4 and 5 March 2013, the wagon repair depots OJSC WRD-1, OJSC WRD-2 and OJSC WRD-3 inspected 304 lateral bogie frames currently in operation and declared 28 unfit for further use.

According to the President of Russian Railways, in these circumstances it was above all necessary to increase the responsibility of wagon manufacturers, which must have all the tools needed for non-destructive testing and avoid launching potentially dangerous products onto infrastructure in general public use.