Magazines — RZD-Partner International — 3 (19) september-november 2009
3 (19) september-november 2009
Contents
Editorial
EDITORIAL
It’s generally accepted that even if we have still not got out of the recession, we nonetheless can see the light at the end of the recessionary tunnel. At least, the global economy has hit the bottom, and at least the financiers and the borrowers managed to survive and live in the new economic conditions.Tadeush Shozda: There are some difficulties, but they are not fatal
AIR TRANSPORT
The Organisation for the Cooperation of Railways (OSJD) consists of 27 member countries operating across a territory on which almost two billion people live, and where the total length of railways exceeds 286,000 km. More than 5.6 billion tons of cargo and 4.2 billion passengers are transported via the railway network every year. Tadeush Szozda, chairman of the OSJD, talks about the problems the organisation is solving in the current complicated economic situation, and about its cooperation with Russia.
Moscow – St. Petersburg: 20 Years along the Way
THEME / infrastruńĺăęó for hogh-speed lines in russia. from dream tu rea
By the end of 2009 a high-speed movement will be started between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the two largest cities in the country. But another, even more ambitious, project is still being developed. It is the construction of a separate high speed mainline between these two cities. The RZD-Partner International has discovered the main problems faced by its designers.Olympic Construction: Will we cope within the time limit?
THEME / infrastruńĺăęó for hogh-speed lines in russia. from dream tu rea
Most of the funds allocated for the Winter Olympics 2014 will be used to pay for the transport infrastructure in Sochi. OAO RZD Management, in its turn, plans to spend almost 300 billion roubles on Olympic projects alone, in addition to the cost of the high-speed link from Moscow to Adler. Experts estimate that, as a result of the realisation of the transport development program in Sochi, more than 100 kilometres of new railway lines will be built.
FROM ST. PETERSBURG TO HELSINKI: 3 ½ Hours in Allegro Mode
THEME / infrastruńĺăęó for hogh-speed lines in russia. from dream tu rea
RZD and Finnish colleagues are planning to open the high-speed passenger link between Helsinki (Finland) and St. Petersburg (Russia) in 2010. It will take 3 ½ hours to cover the route including time spent crossing the border between the two countries.
Panorama. Economics
ECONOMICS / Panorama
On July 30, Russian Railways’ high-speed train Sapsan completed its first demonstration journey on the route Moscow - St. Petersburg. The train built by specialists of German concern Siemens specially for Russian railways and tested at the experimental ring-railway in Scherbinka (Moscow suburb) left Leningradsky railway station (Moscow) at 07.20 a.m.Buy Shares of RZD’s Freight Subsidiary
AIR TRANSPORT
RZD, the RF Ministry of Transport and anti-monopoly authorities are trying to agree the parameters of the Second Freight Company (SFC), which is to be created next year and will get some of rolling stock operated now by RZD. Private companies and owners of rolling stock, are invited to become shareholders in the new operator. This is a unique opportunity for private businesses to use wagons not currently deployed. Businesses like the idea, but want more details and guarantees.
Cargo Turnover in Baltic Countries: disturbing tendencies and optimistic expectations
ECONOMICS / CIS and Baltic States
In the first half of 2009 cargo transshipments through Baltic ports shrank by 3.3% to 60.11 million tons in comparison with the same period of 2008. Rail cargo in this region fell by 13.9% to 60.08 million tons. However, experts believe that it is too early to draw negative conclusions
Federal Customs Service
ECONOMICS / who is who
The Federal Customs Service is an authorised federal executive authority, which carries out its duties and functions in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation with regard to the development of state policy and legal regulations, oversight and control over the customs issues, as well as the functions of currency exchange regulatory agency and special counter-contraband activities and other crimes and administrative violations control.From prosperity to a struggle for survival
ECONOMICS / Rating
It is very possible that the wagon park which belongs to Russian companies will undergo serious changes in 2009. All the signs indicate that the number of wagons will grow (insignificantly, and mainly in RZD’s affiliated companies); that they will be redistributed between owners; and also that they will become concentrated mostly in a few large companies. The beginning of this process is shown in the results of the annual operator ratings made by “RZD-Partner” magazine and INFOLine news agency.Panorama. Transportation
TRANSPORTATION / Panorama
The total revenue of Russian transport and logistic companies working in oversized cargo transportation sector may amount to USD 250-300 million in 2009, consider analysts from InfraNews research agency. To remind, last year the figure was USD 1 billion.The Transsib: A New Idea to Win Customers
TRANSPORTATION / Cargo and routes
The first complex innovative transport product is being created on Russian railways, which will allow cargoes to be moved in containers for a distance of 10,000 km (from Russia’s eastern borders to the western borders of the CIS) in record-breaking time. Its basis will be the Transsib, which is the longest and the most technically equipped mainline railway in the world. The new project has already received its current operational name “Transib for Seven Days”. Will OAO RZD and its foreign partners be able to create a brand new image for this mainline as a product, in order to make every user understand its opportunities as a link between Eastern Asia and Europe? What are the obstacles it faces? And will it be possible to overcome clients’ mistrust of Russian service?
Grain Export Gets New Route: Far East
TRANSPORTATION / Cargo and routes
“The export potential of Russia is defined as around 20 million tonnes of grain,” said Dmitry Medvedev, the RF President, in the beginning of summer 2009. The country is striving to become one the world’s leading grain suppliers and participants in the Russian market expect a transport corridor via Far-Eastern ports to be created to promote Russian grain exports.
Pipeline vs. Rail
TRANSPORTATION / Cargo and routes
The projects carried out in the RF's pipeline sector are able to influence oil and oil products transportation, experts note. Market participants expect the share of railway transportation to decrease due to the intensive development of pipelines.
Crisis in Russian Civil Aviation: A Crisis – with a Crisis in the Background
TRANSPORTATION / Air Transport
The economic crisis has affected aviation in all countries. However, the Russian aviation industry has appeared to be more vulnerable than one could imagine, being struck by problems which have been multiplying in this sector for many years.
Russian Ports: Local Rise Amid General Decline
TRANSPORTATION / Port
In the first half of 2009 the total throughput of Russian sea ports grew by 5.9% year-on-year to 235.4 mln tons. Such a result became possible due to the growth of handling volume of oil, oil products, coal, grain and ore, as well as new handling capacities put into operation.
Panorama. Company
COMPANY / Panorama
Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister, signed a decree on state regulation and control of tariffs, dues, payment for work, and services of natural monopolies at the railway transport.A Downward Curve
COMPANY / OAO RZD
Since the end of last year, the whole of the Russian transport sector has been struggling to cope with the fall in loading figures on the Russian railway network, which reached 33% in January and totalled almost 23% for the half-year in comparison with the same periods in 2008. However, looking forward, most people in the railway sector hope for the stabilisation of the economy and that, as a result, freight traffic will grow.Sergey Abramov: “A fundamentally new level of passenger service will be provided at railway stations”
COMPANY / OAO RZD
The Directorate for Railway Stations was created within RZD’s structure in 2007 with the purpose of radically changing railway stations, to guide them into the market and to match their service level to the best world standards. During our conversation with Mr Sergey Abramov, the Head of the RZD’s Directorate for Railway Stations, we spoke about what has been already achieved, and what is still to be done.
Since 2006, Perry Neumann has been Managing Director of Kuehne+Nagel in Russia. Exclusively for the RZD-Partner business magazine he is expressing his view of the Russian logistics market.
One of the key issues under discussion was the creation of unified information environment in order to join information systems in the sphere of logistics
