Russian Railways invested over RUR 1 trn in rail industry in last five years
Russian Railways has been increasing its investment in the development of the rail industry every year for the last five years. From October 2003 to October 2008, the Company’s total investment exceeded 1 trillion roubles. In IVQ2003, investment amounted to 50 billion roubles, in 2004 to 139 billion roubles, in 2005 to 170 billion roubles, in 2006 to 190 billion roubles and in 2007 to 255 billion roubles. In 2008, investment is scheduled to amount to about 400 billion roubles.
During the last five years, the Company has been investing heavily to improve the infrastructure on the main routes between Kuzbass and the North West, the Kuzbass-Far Eastern Transport Hub and the Kuzbass-Azov-Black Sea Transport Hub. As part of these projects, over 700 km of new and second lines and about 800 kilometres of station tracks have been laid, as well as more than 800 km of track electrified.
During this period, unitary rail management centres were set at the October, Sverdlovsk, North Caucasus and Far Eastern Railways, which has laid the groundwork for the introduction of new IT management systems.
Over the last five years, electrification has been fully completed on the Trans-Siberian Main Line and the following routes: St. Petersburg - Murmansk, Saratov- Volgograd-Tikhoretskaya, Stary Oskol-Valuiki AND Malenga-Sumsky-Posad Obozerskaya.
Major bridges and tunnels all over the railway network have been renovated on and Sakhalin Railways reconstructed. The 15-km North Muysky tunnel on the western section of the Baikal-Amur Main Line operated by East Siberian Railways was commissioned, as well as the Tarmanchukansky and Lagaraulsky Tunnel on Far Eastern Railways and a number of tunnels on the North Caucasus Railways.
Also built and reconstructed in the last five years were major sorting and port stations: Bekasovo, Losta, Nakhodka-Vostochnaya, Tuapse, Novorossiysk. New and renovated existing station complexes in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Omsk, Novosibirsk , Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk and other cities were also commissioned, as well as new access lines built to the port of Olya.
Other projects implemented were high-speed passenger trains between Moscow - Mytishchi, Moscow- Lyubertsy - Ramenskoye and Moscow - Losinoostrovskaya - Mytischi - Pushkin. The Company is also continuing to develop rail-air links between railway stations and airports. In 2008, regular electric train services began between Moscow-Savelovskaya and Sheremetyevo Airport.
The Company’s investment programme also focuses on renovating rolling stock. Russian Railways has thus spent more than 22% of the funds it has allocated to capital investment in the last five years on the purchase and upgrading of rolling stock. Since its inception, the Company has leased more than 900 additional locomotives, about 4,000 passenger coaches, more than 48,000 freight cars and more than 3,500 motor-train rolling stock units. In addition, Russian Railways has modernised over 1,300 locomotives, 28,000 freight cars, more than 2,400 passenger coaches and over than 1,100 electric train sections.