OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2014. A meeting of the working group of the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT) was held on train No. 24/23 Paris - Moscow as the train was en route. The session took place in the train's dining car, which served as a temporary mobile conference room.

The Federal Passenger Company has been a member of the CIT since 2012.

The meeting was attended by management representatives from the International Rail Transport Committee and railway companies from its member countries.

"For the first time, the Federal Passenger Company has initiated a CIT meeting in an international train. In addition to discussing the items on the agenda, we were also able to give a powerful demonstration to our foreign colleagues on the merits of our rolling stock and the quality of the services we offer. They positively evaluated our new practice," said Oleg Nikitin, Deputy Managing Director at the Federal Passenger Company.

During the event, the Federal Passenger Company also gave a presentation of new RIC carriages produced jointly by Siemens and the Tverskoy Wagon Plant, as well as of carriages manufactured by Talgo, which will run on international routes in 2014.

RIC carriages are built in accordance with the International Coach Regulations (Regolamento Internazionale delle Carrozze).

Our international colleagues gave us positive feedback about our service for the sale of electronic tickets on Federal Passenger Company international trains through the site http://pass.rzd.ru.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of developing the service "Travel With Your Car" on Federal Passenger Company international trains. At the moment, a car transporter is included in train No. 31/32 Leo Tolstoy Moscow - Helsinki following a provisional application. This service is becoming more popular in Europe: Czech Railways alone carries up to 35 cars daily on its motor-vehicle trains.

To start motor-vehicle trains to Europe, it is first necessary to put in place the regulatory framework and develop general conditions for the carriage of cars on Federal Passenger Company trains within the European Union, as well as to prepare the required rail infrastructure at the destination stations.

The Federal Passenger Company also made a proposal to amend the AIV - the Agreement concerning the Relationships between Transport Undertakings in respect of International Passenger Traffic by Rail. The proposal envisages establishing the fault of a specific carrier in the event of passenger train delays.

The Federal Passenger Company proposes sharing the responsibility for the delay of Russian trains en route to the European Union.

In practice, the company faces situations in which the responsible carrier establishes the reasonableness of the liability claims and decides how to satisfy them because of the impossibility of establishing the blame of a particular carrier. In such cases, passenger compensation is then paid by all participating carriers, including Federal Passenger Company, without confirmation that it is actually to blame.

The CIT Working Group supports the principle of an equitable distribution of responsibility for late trains. It is proposed to conduct a series of meetings to further resolve the issue.