RZD rehabilitates stretch of railroad tracks on the BAM busiest section to transport freight to the Pacific ports

Rehabilitation project completion to increase the rail line's throughput capacity to 52 million tonnes by 2025

Russian Railways (RZD) has authorized the launch of freight traffic on the second track on the Demchenko - Isakan section in the Amur Region. New rail infrastructure was built on the Fevralsk-Novy Urgal line, one of the busiest sections of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). The complete completion of the modernization will increase the line's throughput capacity to 52 million tonnes by 2025, RZD said on its Telegram messenger channel.

Railway workers laid 11 km of track, constructed 4 bridges, and dumped 140 000 cbm of soil, as part of the modernization of the second track on the Demchenko - Isakan section.

Overall, the rehabilitation project on the 287-km section Fevralsk - New Urgal will require building of 12 double-track inserts and laying continuous second tracks on six sections. Some of the work has already been completed.

An earlier PortNews report said, the major rehabilitation of the Eastern operating domain (polygon) was initiated by President Vladimir Putin to boost the capacity of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian railways by 1.5 times, to 180 million tonnes a year by 2024.

Exports / imports flow through the Eastern operating domain reached 157.4 million tonnes in 2021, the Ministry of Economic Development statistics showed. Rail freight traffic in the eastern direction will hit at least 219 million tonnes per year by 2030, taking into account the forecast of the Ministry of Eastern Development. RZD has previously said that the company plans to export about 160 million tonnes via the Eastern polygon in 2023.

The 4324-km-long Baikal-Amur Mainline is a railway running through Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. The BAM is almost 500 km shorter than the Trans-Siberian Railway on the section from Taishet to the seaport of Vanino.