Russian Railways: News

Arkanghelsk wrote:
President Vladimir Putin on Friday instructed Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to speed up plans for a brand new rail link to the ice-free Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic.

The short order posted on the Kremlin’s portal calls on the Government to “submit proposals for the creation of a railway route to the Barents Sea in the area of the bay of the Indiga River.”

Deadline for the proposal is set to May 10, 2022.

Thanks to FP's December post we all know where the Indiga River is and how the railway is likely to get there.

Now not just an important link but now a Putin Strategic Link.

This is the Russian electric train that Argentina will receive, 21.01.2022.




Thanks to advanced technologies, the train can reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour and change direction in just 1-2 minutes.

The company Transmashholding, one of the leading Russian manufacturers of rolling stock for rail transport, has won the tender for electric trains from the Government of Argentina for a total value of more than 864 million dollars. 

As part of this competition, the Russian company will supply the Latin American country with 70 electric trains of the Ivolga series, covering 560 wagons. According to Transmashholding, throughout several stages, the Argentine authorities not only evaluated the technical and economic parameters, but also tried to ensure that the chosen model meets the expectations of the passengers. "In total, the process of choosing the provider lasted more than 3 years," they said.

Yandex Translate from Spanish

https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/417573-pais-america-latina-tener-trenes-electricos-rusos

caveat emptor wrote:Important news, especially in view of present situation.

https://www.gudok.ru/news/?ID=1615456

Heavyweight trains started transporting goods on BAM

Any chance of a map, the link doesn't work for me?

A year ahead: footage of the construction of BAM-2 by military railway workers of the Eastern Military District

The construction of the second BAM track is being carried out at the Ulak-Fevralsk section with a length of 340 kilometers, more than 1,200 military railway workers are involved.

Servicemen of the railway brigade of the Eastern Military District (VVO) are performing the task of building the second track of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM-2) in the north of the Amur Region.

Military builders laid about half a million cubic meters of rocky soil into the body of the railway embankment at the site of the Ogoron-Moldavsky double-track insert. This currently represents 98 percent of the planned major earthworks.

This work began at the end of April 2021. Military railway workers carried out work on the construction of an embankment of a subgrade, developed soil in recesses, and also equipped drainage ditches. These works were carried out with the help of standard equipment of the railway troops of the Eastern Military District - heavy wheeled and tracked vehicles, including mining articulated dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers, motor graders, rollers and equipment equipped with hydraulic hammers.

Rocky soil and large oversized stones mined from a quarry were used to build an understudy road and to build a new railway embankment next to the tracks of the first branch of the BAM. The embankment in this area was erected by military personnel in several layers. After each, samples were taken by a special laboratory, where an analysis was made and a conclusion was made on compliance with state standards.

“The work is now nearing completion. We are one year ahead of schedule. Planning work is currently underway on the embankment. So to speak, we give it a “marketable appearance”: we smooth everything, measure it out, ”said Dmitry Tatarinov, commander of the mechanization battalion.

It is worth saying that military railway workers are retired from the Russian Armed Forces with extensive experience working on equipment. As a rule, they choose the specialty of an excavator driver, roller or motor grader, as well as a tractor driver, bulldozer driver and others.

In total, work on the construction of the second BAM track is being carried out at the Ulak-Fevralsk section with a length of 340 kilometers. More than 1,200 military railway workers are involved in the work, about 1,000 pieces of equipment for various purposes of the Western, Central, Southern and Eastern military districts are involved.

https://tvzvezda-ru.translate.goog/news/20221029311-Y1izP.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=nui

Russia needs new BAM and Transsib

The recently launched first-ever railway bridge across the Amur River, coupled with a road bridge, has greatly accelerated the transportation of goods to China. However, this is not enough to redirect Russian cargo from Europe to the East. Russia, in fact, will need to build a second BAM and a second Trans-Siberian Railway.

Cargo transportation between Russia and China continues to grow, thanks in part to the expansion of infrastructure. A milestone event was the opening in the summer of an automobile, and in November of this year, the first ever railway bridge across the Amur River.

The railway bridge across the Amur has become a new transport corridor between Russia and China. Prior to that, there were three railway crossings in the Far East. The largest checkpoint is in Transbaikalia, it accounted for up to 70% of cargo going to China. There are two more checkpoints in Primorye.

The new artery across the Amur expands infrastructure opportunities and facilitates the transportation of goods to China. In particular, the distance to the northern provinces of China is reduced by more than 700 km compared to existing routes. Container trains launched across the bridge make it possible to speed up delivery by up to 15-20 days, Alexei Dakhnovsky, Russia's trade representative in China, said.

The railway bridge connected the settlements of Nizhneleninskoye, Jewish Autonomous Region, and Tongjiang, Heilongjiang Province, China. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, together with Chinese partners, financed more than 70% of the entire budget for the construction of the Russian part of the bridge.

The new bridge was necessary for the growth of cargo traffic, including for the increased export of Russian coal to China. Because of the EU coal embargo, Russia had to redirect coal flows to Asian countries. And China became the main buyer, because the use of Russian coal for electricity generation turned out to be more profitable than liquefied natural gas (LNG). Russian coal, in addition, is sold at a discount, which makes it even more profitable than buying, for example, Australian coal.

As a result, Russian rail routes to China were overwhelmed with coal exports. We are talking about record volumes - in August, Beijing received 8.54 million tons of Russian coal. Moreover, China would most likely buy even more Russian coal if there were no transport restrictions.

Deliveries of Russian coal to India are also growing. In the first nine months of this year, the Indians purchased almost 6 million tons of thermal coal from Russia, three times more than a year earlier. The Turkish sales market also looks promising.

Experts in the review of the consulting group "Business Profile" indicate that in order to enter new sales markets and reorient supplies from West to East, it is necessary to create new logistics routes, since the load on the existing ones has almost reached its maximum. In particular, an additional 25 million tons of coal will be redirected to the eastern direction this year, also using ports located in the Azov-Black Sea basin.

This year (for 10 months) in general, Russia and China managed to increase their trade turnover by a third. It amounted to 154 billion dollars. The partners are already pretty close to the $200 billion target set by 2024. However, in order to implement it, bridges across the Amur alone will obviously not be enough.

“The main weak point for the growth of exports to China by rail is the insufficient capacity of Russian railways. There is potential for developing freight traffic to China by rail, but for this Russia needs, in fact, to build a duplicate of BAM and TransSib, which will take a lot of time.

Therefore, there are "plugs" with trains clogged with coal. They cannot travel for several weeks - there are not enough ways to pass several trains at once,” says Artem Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets.

Another bottleneck, according to him, is the lack of locomotives, cargo containers, tanks, freight cars. Now Russian Railways is even reducing the number of produced tanks, as there are not enough funds for their production.

But simultaneously with the construction of new infrastructure to the East, it will be necessary to expand the factories for the production of freight trains, which also requires investment and time. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, in order to maintain the level of coal production and export as much as possible, in the future until 2030 it is necessary to invest 1-1.2 trillion rubles in the development of infrastructure and import substitution of equipment for the industry.

The program to increase the capacity of BAM and TransSib is designed for ten years. “Only by this period, Russia will be able to increase the volume of exports to Asia in such a way as to completely replace the falling volumes of Europe. This is not only coal, but also timber, oil, oil products, etc.,” Deev believes.

Russia traditionally imports cars, construction and agro-industrial equipment, various components, raw materials and materials for our industries, as well as consumer goods (clothes, shoes, household appliances, toys) from China. That is why a number of infrastructure projects in the Chinese direction are currently being implemented.

“Today, 65 projects worth $106.2 billion are being implemented in Russia, and 5 projects worth $5.8 billion are being implemented in China.

The Europe-Western China project is also important, for the construction of which financing in the amount of 655 billion rubles was planned. Including the construction of a bypass road around Togliatti and a bridge across the Volga, as well as the project of the Meridian toll highway, which will connect Russia and China, and will cost 600 billion rubles. The project is considered exclusively as a transit one and is practically not focused on the needs of domestic Russian carriers,” notes Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Statistics of the PRUE. Plekhanova Olga Lebedinskaya.
KADAM

In general, more than 70 projects totaling over $120 billion are under discussion at the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission for Investment Cooperation.

https://k--politika-ru.translate.goog/rossii-nuzhny-novye-bam-i-transsib/?utm_source=finobzor.ru&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/pakistan-invites-russia-to-develop-national-railway-projects-with-instc-connectivity.html/

Pakistan Invites Russia To Develop National Railway Projects With INSTC Connectivity

Pakistan has invited Russia to participate in it railway projects, according to Yevgeny Fidchuk, assistant to the Russian Transport Minister. The comments were made during a meeting of the Russia-Pakistan intergovernmental commission.

“We have discussed possible ways to develop regional railway lines with the Pakistani side, including the North-South corridor, and ways to improve it,” Fidchuk said, noting that Pakistan has invited Russia to participate in implementing potential projects in the railway sector for investing and establishing joint ventures.

“The Russian side expects more detailed information from the Pakistani side, after which we will consider it carefully.” Fidchuk added. Syed Mazhar Ali Shah, Pakistan’s Secretary of the Ministry of Railways, in turn said that Pakistan has invited Russia to consider possibly investing in projects in the railway sector as part of work at the intergovernmental level. The Russian side has agreed to consider the request and develop it.

The Pakistan Railways network has a total of 7,791 km of track, with 625 stations along the network, 1,043 km of double-track sections (in total) and 285 km of electrified sections. It is in significant need of upgrading.

In 2014, the Ministry of Railways launched Pakistan Railways Vision 2026, which seeks to increase Pakistan Railways share in Pakistan’s transportation sector from 4% to 20%, using a US$3.9 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) rail upgrade. The plan includes building new locomotives, development and improvement of current rail infrastructure, an increase in average train speed, improved on-time performance and expansion of passenger services. The first phase of the project was completed in 2017, and the second phase is scheduled for completion by 2021. That second phase includes the ML-1 project, running between Karachi and Peshawar, to be completed in three phases at a cost of US$4.9 billion. This line carries 75% of Pakistan’s freight, yet has been significantly delayed due to covid and Pakistan’s internal political issues. The delays have become a source of friction between Islamabad and Beijing as they push back projected cashflow income that Pakistan needs to generate in order for it to repay Chinese loans over the longer term.

The Russian potential involvement however in Pakistan’s railways seem to be concentrated on integrating the Pakistan railway system with other external routes, and specifically the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC). Russia is already involved with building a major gas pipeline linking the Pakistani southern ports of Karachi and Gwadar, to power plants and industrial hubs in Pakistan’s northern region of the Punjab. Pakistan has oil and gas fields around its southern coast, while Gwadar Port can also be connected to incoming pipelines from Iran. These supplies would then be piped to northern Pakistan and the industrial belt where the energy is most needed.

Developing rail connectivity between Pakistan’s Gwadar Port overland to neighbouring Iran is probably more in line with Russian interest as this would provide overland access for Pakistan to Iranian energy. Iran, for its part, has already stated it is prepared to connect its national electricity grid to member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – which includes Pakistan.

Pakistan has embarked on a long term industralization project, most notably with China under CPEC however Russia now views Pakistan as a significant potential energy client.

Pakistan’s energy sector remains one of its main obstacles to economic growth. Although Pakistan has managed to increase power generation since 2013 and mitigate power blackouts that plagued the country over the past decade, expensive fuel sources, a reliance on imported energy products, chronic natural gas shortages, major debt in the power sector, and aging and insufficient transmission and distribution systems have prevented the sector from growing and modernizing. Weak governance, uncoordinated energy policymaking and a lack of long-term energy planning only add to Pakistan’s current energy woes. With Russia’s inexpensive and massive energy supplies now being redirected to Asian as opposed to Western consumers, building the infrastructure to get that to Pakistan with Iranian assistance is likely to become a core South-Asian development issue and ultimately assist with regional growth.

The volume of cargo transportation of Russian Railways to the east in 2022 for the first time exceeded transportation to the west

In the second half of 2022, the volume of traffic on the Russian Railways (RZD) network to the east exceeded the volume of traffic to the west for the first time. This was announced on February 6 by the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"For the first time in history, the volume exceeded transportation to the west — 80 million against 76 million tons," Belozerov said.

According to the head of the transport company, the volume of railway traffic with friendly countries in 2022 increased by 23%, and with unfriendly ones, on the contrary, decreased by 40%.

"Accordingly, from 365 to 210 million [tons], and this trend continues," the head of Russian Railways said.

Belozerov also added that in December of this year, Russian Railways plans to launch the new port of Lavna in the Murmansk region.

In December, logistics expert Mark Veshnyakov commented to Izvestia that in 2022, the logistics services market was adjusting to new conditions: suppliers reviewed many aspects of their work and changed delivery routes. Thus, Turkey has become a hub for cargo transportation. Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Iran also participate in deliveries from abroad to Russia. In 2023, these countries will continue to actively help Russia with the transportation of goods, including through parallel imports, Veshnyakov predicted.

On September 23, 2022, Vladimir Sagalaev, a financial analyst at CMS Group of Companies, in an interview with Izvestia, called for support for cargo transportation participants amid rising prices. He noted that prices for freight transportation by rail have increased significantly, in such conditions, market participants need support, and discounts and tariff differentiation should be introduced for this purpose.

According to him, the growth in the cost of cargo transportation was also affected by the global economic slowdown and disruption of logistics chains around the world. Therefore, international transportation has risen in price much more than domestic ones. For example, cargo transportation from China to Russia grew by an average of 300% over the year.

On September 7, Putin announced at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that the volume of cargo transportation in the eastern direction will grow, including due to the expansion of capacity. The target is a volume of 40 million tons.

Sanctions pressure on Russia increased after the start of Moscow's special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass, which was announced on February 24, 2022. It began against the background of the escalating situation in the region in mid-February.

https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/ru-en.en.c85bb0fc-63e0e84f-2b45fefc-74722d776562/https/iz.ru/1465871/2023-02-06/obem-gruzoperevozok-rzhd-na-vostok-v-2022-godu-vpervye-prevysil-perevozki-na-zapad?main_click