Transport gigantomania

RZD gathers stones

Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, was the main agitator at the Forum to propagate the creation of a holding joining railway, motor, air and sea transport. As Russia’s chief railway representative distinctly put it “I don’t want to gain the character of a person supporting further monopolization but once in the history of Russian Communications Ministry its emblem included not only railway component but an anchor as ports were a part of the ministry’s system. And the current emblem with traditional wings suggests that we are just to integrate the two emblems to achieve a perfect result.”

According to Yakunin, Russian Railways should follow the strategy of mixed transportation development. “We are to get the ferry this year, Ust-Luga-Baltijsk-Sassnits is in operation already and Russia is likely to join COTIF this year which is to expand our capacity in terms of transit transportation and to ensure equal possibilities for us and our Baltic neighbors,” he explained. He also noted that the company’s consistent policy aimed at buying into container terminals in ports contributes to implementation of this strategy.

Despite the President’s remark, such statements are hard to be treated otherwise than a course to further monopolization as RZD is a state company and could serve a basis for a new state transport corporation. It’s another matter how it influences the branch market as the efficiency of state corporations is still an open issue.

Meanwhile, the approach of RZD President to the development of mixed transportation was supported by Juergen Sauer, President of Mercedes-Benz Russia. According to him, it is important to find an optimal balance between transport systems and to develop “a correct combination of trucks, trans and ships.” Juergen Sauer believes only integration of different types of transport will help to solve the problems of cargo transportation and ensure “door-to door” delivery of cargo to the customer.

Both Presidents agreed that different ways of transportation cannot fully substitute each other. It is impossible to avoid motor transportation and to replace it with railway transportation for ecological reasons as the railway cannot deliver cargo to the “customer’s door”. Vladimir Yakunin noted that RZD should have its own motor transport concern.

At whose expense?

However, the foreign colleague believes the crisis is the time for Russia to think about investments in improvement of transport infrastructure. Of course, it is difficult to speak about efficient development of mixed transportation in the context of lack and unsatisfactory state of many infrastructure facilities. “Logistics recession influences all types of transport,” Juergen Sauer says. Investment in transport infrastructure is a good and timely measure. 29% of Russia’s federal highways areoverloaded. Poor state of Russian highways results in the loss of some 3% of GDP.”

Meanwhile, the government is not to invest in infrastructure at its expense alone. According to Oleg Belozeorov, Deputy Transport Minister of the Russian Federation, “public-private partnership will give a sound impulse to the development of all types of transport. We think some 60% of investment should come from off-budget sources that are market sources.

A conclusion comes that the priority of the state policy under current circumstances will be the search for investors for the transport infrastructure development as there is no reason to speak about further industry development without this. At the same time, the issue of how to integrate different types of transport without market monopolization remains open.

Vitaly Chernov