OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2013. The 4th International Rail Freight Conference takes place in March 12-15 in Prague (Czech Republic) with the support of the International Union of Railways, the Organization for Co-operation between Railways, the European Association of Railway Equipment Manufacturers, and the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies. This event is dedicated to the development of Eurasian freight rail.

The conference was attended by Vladimir Yakunin, President of JSC Russian Railways.

The Eurasian Railway Forum took place March 12 within the conference; there was a separate unit which focused on the role of Russian Railways in the development of the Eurasian transport system. The discussion was attended by Vladimir Yakunin, President of RZD, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of International Union of Railways, Philippe Citroen, Director General of the Association of the European Rail Industry, and Libor Lochman, Executive Director of the European Association of Railway Equipment Manufacturers and Infrastructure Companies.

On March 13, Mr. Yakunin conducted the conference "The Key Role of the Russian Railways in the Development of the Eurasian Railway Corridor."

Mr. Yakunin spoke not only as the President of Russian Railways, but also as Chairman of the International Union of Railways.

In his speech, Vladimir Yakunin noted the importance of the Russian rail system for the world. He said that Russian Railways was actively involved in the development of Eurasian transport corridors and major investment in infrastructure in order to increase its capacity and, therefore, was more attractive to shippers.

"The Trans-Siberian Railway is now one of the busiest in the world and, in the future, more than a hundred pairs of passenger and freight trains will be running there every day. By 2020 about \\$6 billion is planned for investment in the development of the Trans-Siberian railway" said Mr. Yakunin.

He recalled that, in accordance with the program for the development of rail-container transport, work was being conducted that by 2015 will ensure the transport service "Trans-Siberian in 7 days." The President of the company said that even now the average travel time is less that 8 days and the speed is about 1200 km a day.

"We offer our partners a new level of transport services which shows steady growth. Between 2009 and 2012, the volume of transit traffic increased from 22 million tons to 33 million tons. The transportation of large containers is growing even faster. In 2012, transit container traffic has doubled in comparison with 2009 to 238 200 TEUs, including 48.3 thousand TEUs in the strategic East-West direction" said Mr. Yakunin.

As the president noted, an increase the transit capacity of Russian railways will facilitate the integration of the logistics company Gefco, an operator with 60 years of experience, into RZD.

New opportunities for the development of transport services offer the full functioning of the Customs Union between Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus and the formation of the Common Economic Space. At present, based on the support of the heads of states of the Common Economic Space, Russian Railways, in conjunction with the railways of Kazakhstan and Belarus, is working to establish a United Transport and Logistics Company.

The President of JSC Russian Railways said that work on the formation of a new Eurasian corridor to Slovakia and Austria is especially relevant now as the development of the East European railway corridor continues.

"According to our estimates, the project will reduce the actual time to allow the passage of goods between Europe and Asia to 13–14 days, which is twice as fast as by sea and eliminates the need for transshipment on connecting stations when changing the wheels of the railway gauge in Europe" said Mr. Yakunin.

The company President also mentioned the Hasan– Rason project, which is considered a pilot project for reconstructing the Trans-Korean Main Line, which will make it possible for the Trans-Siberian to take on part of the traffic coming now by sea from South Korea to Europe and the CIS countries and greatly reduce cargo-delivery time.

Finally, Mr. Yakunin said that prospective rail traffic between Europe and Asia will be determined primarily by the efficiency of international cooperation in the field of infrastructure and rolling stock and the harmonization of transport standards, both from technical and legal points of view.