President of Russian Railways sums up Company's work during first 5 months of 2014
During a conference call on 11 June 2014, Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, summed up the railway network's operational performance during January-May 2014.
According to Yakunin, in the first 5 months of the year, 498.9 million tons of freight were shipped, 0.6% less than during the same period in 2013. Tariff turnover in January-May increased by 5.5% over the same period last year, and by 6.4% taking into account the Company's own empty wagon runs.
"The situation is a stalemate: costs are rising due to the significant increase in freight turnover, even though we are holding them down, while revenues, in contrast, are at best the same as last year," said Vladimir Yakunin.
In this regard, Yakunin noted the need for additional freight volumes and pointed to long-term contracts for freight transportation as one of the measures that would help achieve that goal.
In the first 5 months of 2014, RZD Logistics carried more than 5.3 million tons of freight when providing integrated transport and logistics services under contract to shippers and freight forwarders.
Currently, long-term contracts for freight transportation have been concluded with major shippers such as SUEK, KRU, Mechel-Trans, Evraz, Sibuglemet, NOVATEK, the Kuzbass Fuel Company, MMK and NLMK.
RZD Logistics organised test transportation of 60-metre rails to Germany for Deutsche Bahn by a "door-to-door" service via the Ust-Luga - Sassnitz rail-ferry link.
Vladimir Yakunin said that in the 5 months of 2014, targets for most rolling stock quality indicators had been met.
For example, the average speed of container trains was 901 km/day, 2.2% more than during the same period last year, and 1,102 km/day on the service "Transsiberian in 7 days", an increase of 4.9%.
Since the beginning of the year, 30,700 freight trains have been dispatched on specialised timetables, including 6,600 under contracts with fixed departure and arrival times.
According to the President of Russian Railways, more than 416.4 million passengers were carried during January-May 2014, 2% more than in the same period last year. Long-distance passenger numbers exceeded 37.1 million, a decline of 9.3%, while suburban passengers rose 3.2% to about 379.3 million.
According to Vladimir Yakunin, special attention should be given to transport in the direction of Anapa and Krasnodar in order to facilitate the transportation of passengers to Crimea.
A additional timetable for 9 pairs of trains has therefore been developed. From 1 May to 27 July 2014 (including advance sales), 65,800 tickets have already sold for the intermodal connection with the Republic of Crimea.
In total, about 250 additional trains will be laid on in order to ensure the transportation of passengers in the summer 2014.