Russian Railways: News

Investigators of the Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport opened a criminal case into a terrorist attack after an explosion and fire of a train in the Severomuysky tunnel on the BAM, which occurred on November 29, Russian media report.

The train explosion occurred on the Itykit – Okushikan section. The train consisted of 50 cars, among which were 41 tanks with diesel fuel and 3 tanks with aviation fuel. At the scene, investigators found fragments of an improvised explosive device. As a result of the explosion, one tank burned out, and two were found to have holes. After the explosion, it was possible to remove 14 tanks, but further transportation of the cars is still impossible - the explosion seriously damaged the rails, and the leaked fuel flooded them.

Later, another train was blown up in the same area. In this case, four tanks burned out, and two more were damaged by fire. It was initially believed that the cause of the accident in the tunnel was a short circuit in the cable network. However, the subsequent detonation of the second train and the discovery of traces of an improvised explosive device make the version of a terrorist attack obvious.

Western media also report a deliberate terrorist attack in the BAM tunnel. The American television channel CNN claims that the SBU is involved in the sabotage.

https://topcor-ru.translate.goog/41887-dva-poezda-podorvali-v-severomujskom-tonnele-bama-veduschem-iz-rossii-v-kitaj.html?utm_source=topwar.ru&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

This is literal terrorism and not any sort of war action by Ukria. Next step is to put bombs on Russian passenger aircraft.

Russian law enforcement agencies have arrested a man accused of acting on behalf of Ukraine to derail a train in a “terrorist act” in the western part of the country last month. The suspect, who has dual Russian-Italian citizenship, is also alleged to have been involved in a drone attack on a military airfield during the summer.

Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Friday that “skillfully planned” efforts by local transport security officials, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Interior Ministry, and the National Guard had helped it to apprehend the suspect, who is accused of “plant[ing] self-made explosive devices on the railway.” According to the Shot Telegram channel, citing sources, the man had acted “on ideological grounds.”

The Investigative Committee was referring to the incident in which 19 freight cars carrying mineral fertilizers were derailed on November 11 in Ryazan Region, around 200km southeast of Moscow. Russian officials initially blamed “unauthorized interference by third parties,” but later declared it a “terrorist act.”

Investigators identified the alleged perpetrator as a 35-year-old local Ryazan resident with dual Russian-Italian citizenship. The agency said he had confessed during questioning to being recruited by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) in February 2023.

According to the statement, the suspect underwent sabotage training in Latvia under the auspices of the country’s special services, and in March 2023 he returned to Ryazan.

The agency also said operatives had seized evidence from the man during a search, including components for making bombs as well as electronic devices containing reports on crimes already committed.

In a separate statement, the FSB claimed the alleged perpetrator had also acted on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence in July to produce explosive devices, which he then used to equip four quadcopters to attack the Dyagilevo military airfield, also in Ryazan Region. The attack reportedly did not result in any damage or casualties.

The Investigative Committee and FSB said they were continuing to probe whether the alleged saboteur was involved in other similar crimes.

Russian law enforcement agencies regularly report the detention of suspected Ukrainian agents who are accused of attempting to stage sabotage attacks or assassinate prominent Russian figures. In late November, the FSB said it had detained a pro-Ukrainian saboteur who planned to plant a bomb in the southwestern city of Voronezh, in a bid to kill an unnamed senior Russian commander.

https://www.rt.com/russia/588328-suspect-ukraine-train-attack-detained/

Train traffic through the Severomuysky tunnel on the Itykit - Okushikan section of the East Siberian Railway has been completely restored. The press service of Russian Railways (RZD) reported this on December 2.

“At 18:20 Moscow time, a freight train passed through the Severomuysky tunnel. “More than 120 people and special equipment were involved in resuming railway communication, as well as eliminating the consequences of the incident,” the message on the Telegram channel says.

The company noted that train traffic along the section was not interrupted, but it was organized along a bypass section with an increase in travel time. All passenger trains are on schedule.

Earlier, on November 30, Russian Railways reported a freight train fire in the Severomuysky tunnel. The train was stopped and two firefighting trains were sent to the scene. Some of the carriages were taken outside.

https://iz-ru.translate.goog/1614528/2023-12-02/dvizhenie-poezdov-po-severomuiskomu-tunneliu-vosstanovleno?main_click&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

I bet this gets completed in an amazingly short time!

The FSB uncovered a terrorist attack on the Baikal-Amur Mainline and detained its perpetrator. The customer, as expected, was the Ukrainian special services.

FSB officers identified the perpetrator of the terrorist attack ordered by Kiev, followed his trail and detained him in the Omsk region. He turned out to be a citizen of Belarus, born in 1971, who planted explosive devices on the tanks of two freight trains on the instructions of his compatriot living in Lithuania and working for the Ukrainian special services.

A terrorist act prepared by the Ukrainian special services, aimed at destroying critical transport and energy infrastructure facilities, has been uncovered. A citizen of the Republic of Belarus, born in 1971, was detained on the territory of the Omsk region, who committed explosions on November 29 and 30 of two trains with petroleum products traveling along the routes Taishet - Tynda and Taishet - Neryungri along the Baikal-Amur Mainline in Buryatia - the message says.

The detainee confesses, according to him, explosive devices (magnetic mines) were in a cache, from where he took them and took them to Buryatia in a personal car, where he installed them on tanks. He knew that these were mines and did everything for a monetary reward. The planted explosives went off while trains were moving through the Severomuysky tunnel of the BAM. As a result, traffic through the tunnel was temporarily blocked due to the fire, but serious consequences were avoided. A criminal case has been opened against the detainee, and he is now being checked for committing other sabotage and terrorist attacks on Russian territory.

https://topwar-ru.translate.goog/231815-fsb-zaderzhala-ispolnitelja-terakta-v-severomujskom-tonnele-bamaa.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

If it wasn't for the different gauge the Russians could rent one of these and its crews to do the job. Done in a month or two

Putin: High-speed railways will reach Lugansk and Donetsk, by Alexandra Yudina for VZGLYAD. 12.15.2023.

High-speed railways in the future will also reach Lugansk and Donetsk, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said during the Railway Congress.

“I’ll especially emphasize: in the future, of course, we will build them to Lugansk and Donetsk,” he said in a video published in Telegram -Kremlin channel

Putin also emphasized that high-speed railways in the future will pass through territories where 111 million people live, or 80% of the Russian population.

The head of state said that a whole network of high-speed railways will be created in Russia, which will significantly reduce travel time between major cities.

It was previously reported that the completion of the construction of a high-speed highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg is tentatively expected in 2028.

https://vz.ru/news/2023/12/15/1244531.html

Russia begins a decade of grandiose railway projects, by Andrey Rezchikov for VZGLYAD. 12.15.2023.

Vladimir Putin announced plans to create a network of high-speed railways (HSR). It will connect the capital with St. Petersburg, Minsk, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, resorts on the Black Sea coast, and in the future - with Donbass. What is required to implement the project and why is it important for the country?

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the coming decade a period of “big construction” and big projects, “including on the railway.” According to him, the Russian railway network ranks first in the world in terms of intensity of use, providing 87% of the country's freight turnover and about a third of passenger traffic. Over a billion passengers a year use Russian railways.

Putin noted that the country plans to create an entire network of high-speed highways (HSM), which will significantly reduce travel time between major cities. At the moment, there are no such roads in Russia, as well as corresponding rolling stock. “As a first step, such a route should radically reduce travel time between the two largest agglomerations of our country - Moscow and St. Petersburg,” said the head of state.

Such routes will be built to Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don and Minsk. “I’ll especially emphasize: in the future, we will certainly build them to Lugansk and Donetsk,” Putin said. “It is planned that high-speed highways will pass through territories where more than 111 million of our citizens live, which is 80% of the country’s population.”

In turn, Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev announced at the congress that the main parameters for the implementation of the project for the construction of a high-speed railway from Moscow to St. Petersburg have been formed. A financial and organizational model has also been developed. According to him, the effect of the project is many times greater than the required investment for construction.

HSR is an electrified double-track railway line on which trains can travel at speeds from 200 to 400 kilometers per hour. The government instructed the Ministry of Transport, together with the Ministry of Economic Development, JSC Russian Railways, JSC Sinara Group and PJSC Sberbank, to work out the parameters of the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway in July of this year " Last fall, the Ministry of Transport estimated the cost of this project at 1.7 trillion rubles. The new route, 680 km long, should reduce communication between Moscow and St. Petersburg to 2.5 hours instead of the current four hours on the fastest train.

The head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov, noted in August that the high-speed line between Moscow and St. Petersburg will allow the development of both passenger and freight transportation. He also emphasized that the creation of high-speed highways pays off and has a large multiplier effect on the country's economy. The starting point for the construction of the high-speed railway was 2010, when the program for the development of high-speed railways in Russia until 2030 was adopted. Russian Railways expects the completion of the majority of the planned high-speed lines by 2043. From 2030 to 2035 alone, it is planned to build about 7 thousand km of high-speed tracks.

The expert community calls plans for the construction of high-speed lines grandiose. However, the interlocutors of the newspaper VZGLYAD point out that the implementation of the project will require considerable funds, as well as quite a lot of time. “Construction of high-speed lines is expensive and time-consuming. Accordingly, there are a lot of expenses, they will be distributed over three, five or more years,” says economist Ivan Lizan.

He emphasizes that “there is nothing complicated in building a road, but the question is what kind of design it is needed and how much time and money it will take to implement the grandiose project.” According to official data, by 2060 the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed rail line should carry 36.4 million passengers per year, and the total flow in this direction is expected to be 62.3 million.

An expert on railway development, Sergei Sigachev, also considers the high-speed railway construction project to be costly in terms of investment and implementation time. “Moreover, we are now implementing expensive projects to modernize the Eastern training ground (comprehensive modernization of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways) and increase the capacity of the ports. This is already a serious burden,” he notes. At the same time, according to the expert, HSR will be effective provided that a wide network is created, as, for example, in China, which has become the world leader in this class of transportation.

“If the project includes a line passing through a number of large cities, such a project will pay off. After all, an increase in the economic mobility of citizens leads to the fact that the overall effect becomes positive,” explained Sigachev.

The development of a domestic high-speed train was entrusted to the joint venture of Russian Railways and Sinara - Transport Machines - the Engineering Center for Railway Transport (IC ZhT). In particular, “Business” and “Standard” type trains are being developed. Meanwhile, the expert admits that Russia may resort to cooperation with China.

“Beijing has already passed this path; it has borrowed solutions from Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier. As a result, China has built a very large network and gained enormous experience.

Since Russia now has a strategic partnership with China, China can share its technologies,” Sigachev believes. According to Lizan, high-speed lines to Donetsk and Lugansk are primarily needed for transporting people, “Donbass will be an extremely subsidized region for the next ten years.” “There is no direct railway connection between Donbass and the rest of the country yet, the sky is closed. This is not surprising, since the special operation is not over yet. Therefore, the HSR to Donetsk and Lugansk has a symbolic aspect, emphasizing the importance of these territories for Russia,” the economist believes.

Sigachev agrees that in this case we are talking about a long-term perspective. “The SVO will end and a period of reconstruction will begin, then this project will be fully put into operation,” the expert believes.

https://vz.ru/economy/2023/12/15/1244539.html

Hole wrote:

high-speed lines to Donetsk and Lugansk

I imagine there will be a line from Sewastopol to Kherson, Nikolaev and Odessa.

Don't forget Tiraspol (Transnistria)

Russian Railways will launch a completely import-substituted Lastochka, 12.27.2023.

Russian Railways will launch the import-substituted Lastochka on December 28, the train is called Finist.

MOSCOW, December 27 – RIA Novosti. On Thursday, Russian Railways will launch the first import-substituted analogue of the Lastochka electric train, called Finist, the company told RIA Novosti.
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“On the twenty-eighth of December, the first completely import-substituted analogue of the Lastochka begins running on the Russian Railways network. The name for the new train, Finist, was chosen by popular vote,” said the Russian Railways.

The company clarified that its name is associated with the symbol of eternal renewal and rebirth; this image repeats the fate of the “Swallow”, which was reborn from foreign rolling stock into domestic one.

The first Finist will depart from the Yekaterinburg station platform to deliver passengers to Kamensk-Uralsky. At the first stage, the train will operate on existing suburban routes in the Sverdlovsk region, and from January it is planned that Finistov will operate on new routes from Yekaterinburg to Karpinsk (via Serov) and Verkhoturye.

The name "Finist" was given to the electric train ES104 - a model of the new so-called "Swallow" made entirely of Russian components. It has five carriages, 416 seats. The version built by the Sinara - Transport Machines holding together with the German concern Siemens at the Ural Locomotives plant had 346 seats.

The seats in the cabin are arranged in threes and twos in a row. The backrests do not recline. There are no seats opposite each other. There are USB connectors for chargers. Separate temperature control is provided for each car. One of the “features” of the new “Swallow” is that there are more toilets: three instead of two in its predecessor, built in partnership with Siemens.

Dmitry Pegov, who then held the post of General Director for Passenger Transportation, spoke about plans to launch the first import-substitute analogues of Lastochkas in the Urals in an interview with RIA Novosti in July. In November, Deputy General Director of Russian Railways Ivan Kolesnikov noted that trains could also appear on routes in the Perm Territory.

https://ria.ru/20231227/lastochka-1918430693.html

A new tunnel was built at the BAM (Baikal Amur Mainline). A secondary tunnel next to the Dusse-Alin Tunnel to enable two track operation. The tunnel was opened with the drill and blast method due to the hard rock in the region. The new tunnel has a length of 1824 meters.




https://erdc.ru/en/news/sostoyalas-sboyka-novogo-dusse-alinskogo-tonnelya-na-bame/

Russia plans to increase spending on increasing the capacity of railways delivering goods to the Far East to 366 billion rubles ($4.03 billion) this year, up about 40% from 2023.
By 2030, the capacity of railways such as BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway is expected to reach 210 million tons per year, up from 173 million tons in 2023.

Sales of Chinese cars to Russia (here we mean EURASEC) exceeded 1 million cars in 2023.
#DragonBear

And why would't you spend money expanding the volume flow when that generates income for you too...

Trains for high-speed lines will be produced at Sinara, Manturov said, 03.14.2024.

Manturov: two new buildings will be built at Sinara to produce trains for high-speed lines.

MOSCOW, March 14 - RIA Novosti. The lead contractor for the production of high-speed trains in Russia for the corresponding highways will be the Sinara group, Transmashholding (TMH) - it will provide them with components and systems, said Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.
Putin is holding a meeting on Thursday on the construction of a high-speed railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg.

“As a follow-up to the meeting that you held last month at the Ural Locomotives plant , we have additionally worked out the issue of producing high-speed trains. We have sorted out all the cooperation and confirm that the Sinara group is most suitable for carrying out this task as the lead contractor,” - Manturov said at the meeting.

“The industry leader Transmashholding will also take part in the cooperation on the project. The company will provide the new trains with a number of components and systems,” the Deputy Prime Minister added. He clarified that the total investment in the project will be about 35 billion rubles. Sinara intends to raise up to 80% of this amount through the preferential mechanism of the cluster investment platform.

For production at the Ural Locomotives site, it is planned to build two new buildings with a total area of ​​60 thousand square meters. More than one hundred Russian suppliers of raw materials, materials and components are involved in the production.

https://ria.ru/20240314/vsm-1932980633.html

Over the past two years, the logistics market has undergone dramatic changes. The West's policy of severing business ties with our country and imposing sanctions on business contributed to the acceleration of Russia's turn towards the Pacific Ocean. As a result, according to the Federal Customs Service, Russia’s trade with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region now accounts for almost 70% of total trade turnover.

At the same time, the main burden of cargo transportation fell on the railway networks of JSC Russian Railways. But despite the difficult geopolitical conditions, the holding is carrying out the modernization of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways as usual. This made it possible to increase the transport capacity of the Eastern range to 173 million tons in 2023. The plan for the current year is 180 million tons, and the implementation of the Russian Railways megaproject for the construction of the “Third BAM” and, in general, the third stage of development of the Eastern range will allow increasing transportation capacity to 270 million tons by 2032.

Other priorities

In order to achieve the target parameters within the specified time frame, the construction of the most technically complex infrastructure facilities is starting now. On March 29, 2024, JSC Russian Railways and the Bamtonnelstroy-Most Group of Companies (BTS-Most) entered into a general contract for the construction of backups for the Severomuysky tunnel (Russian Railways estimates its cost at 307 billion rubles), the Kodarsky tunnel (36 billion rubles) and Kuznetsovsky tunnel (61 billion rubles), as well as the bridge over the Amur in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (47 billion rubles). The preliminary total cost of construction of these key facilities is about 500 billion rubles, the estimate for the entire third stage is 3.7 trillion rubles. Russian Railways emphasized that the project passport was formed taking into account the needs and wishes of all participants in the railway transportation market and allows us to continue to implement the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation.

The expansion of the highway is of strategic importance. Due to pressure on Russia through sanctions, companies whose production facilities are concentrated in the European part are now sending their goods to Asian countries, which affects the congestion of the existing railway infrastructure. The head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov , reported that more than 700 companies began sending their goods to Asia instead of Western partners who blocked their products. In 2023, for the first time in history, exports to the East exceeded cargo flows to the West (80 million tons versus 76 million tons). In this regard, the eastern corridor is the main priority in the current situation. “The Russian Railways company is carrying out, I’m not afraid of this word, titanic work to expand transportation capacity and the total volume of traffic,” noted First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov at one of the meetings of the council on national projects.

Even despite unprecedented pressure from the collective West, Russian Railways found new opportunities to continue modernization work. The holding has always occupied a leading position among companies using modern market investment mechanisms and has repeatedly acted as a “pioneer” in testing new financial instruments - for example, it issued perpetual bonds to finance “green” projects, etc. Thanks to this, it was possible to ensure the flow of investments in the development of the Eastern training ground and achieve their systematic growth. Thus, in 2019, investments in the project amounted to 35 billion rubles, in 2020 - 69 billion, in 2021 - 78 billion, 2022 - 138 billion, 2023 - 250 billion.

FULL ARTICLE: https://svpressa-ru.translate.goog/economy/article/410788/?utm_source=finobzor.ru&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

Contract for new 400km/h HSR signed:
https://www.metalinfo.ru/ru/news/160082

First trainsets to be delivered in four years, ambitious!

Russia ready to offer access to Asian markets to partners in BAM (rans-Siberian Railway) upgrade — Putin

https://tass.com/politics/1779055