OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2014. Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, summed up the Company's operational work on the railway network in January-August 2014 during a conference call.

According to Yakunin, tariff freight turnover in January-August increased by 5.5% over the same period in 2013 and by 6.1% including empty wagon runs by the Company's own rolling stock.

In the 8 months so far this year, over 808 million tons of freight were shipped, 1.4% fewer than during the same period of 2013.

The productivity of the Company's employees engaged in transportation increased by 10.5% compared with the previous year. The Company met its targets on most qualitative indicators on the use of rolling stock.

Vladimir Yakunin noted the positive trend in increasing the average weight of freight trains and the Company's compliance with timetables.

In January-August, 44,300 freight trains departed in accordance with specialised timetables, including 9,900 on contracts with fixed departure and arrival times.

In August, an increase was achieved in the route speed of loaded wagons on through consignor routes compared to the level of August 2013 by 20 km/day to 484 km/day).

For the year to date, the route speed of container trains was 881 km/day, 11 km/day or 1.3% more than during the same period last year.

The President of Russian Railways drew the attention of the Company's employees to the need to improve customer focus and generate additional revenues.