Waterborne traffic on Russia's inland waterways rose 6% in the 2022 navigation season, Rosmorrechflot says

Passenger traffic expected to exceed 5% by year-end results

Freight traffic by water transport across all 14 basins of inland waterways of Russia in the navigation of 2022 will exceed the results of 2021 by more than 6%, and passenger traffic growth may exceed 5%, provisional data of Rosmorrechflot showed.

Waterborne traffic on Russia's inland waterways in 2021 increased by 1.2% on 2020 results and reached 110.28 million tonnes, passenger traffic – by 11.5%, to 8.61 million people. This year, cargo transportation can reach 116.9 million tonnes, passenger transportation can exceed 9 million people.

In the 2022 navigation season, the total length of inland waterways in federal ownership amounted to 101,589.5 km, including 50,682.8 km with guaranteed dimensions of fairways that form the “backbone network” of the country’s inland waterways. The total length of federal waterways after some measures will reach 101305 km (-314, 5 km) in 2023, including 51025.8 km with guaranteed dimensions of fairways.

It is planned to improve during the 2023 period the categories of maintained waterways in stretches of a total length of 1505.5 km.

The shipping season on Russia’s inland waterways this year ended with the closing of navigation in the Azov-Don basin. Transit of the last vessel this season (the icebreaker Kapitan Demidov) through the Kochetovsky hydroelectric complex was handled on Dec. 20. The icebreaker returned to the seaport of Rostov-on-Don after escorting ships through the Tsimlyansk reservoir and the Volga-Don Shipping Canal.