OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2008. The major investment projects in 2008 are aimed at developing and upgrading railway infrastructure on key routes (Kuzbass - Far East Transport Hub, Kuzbass - Azov-Black Sea Transport Hub, Kuzbass - North-West), the full reconstruction of the section between Mga - Gatchina - Ivangorod and of the rail approaches to ports on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, Trubnaya - Upper Baskunchak - Aksaraiskaya and Kotelnikovo - Tikhoretskaya - Crimean with a bypass around the Krasnodar Hub, as well as a development programme for high-speed railways, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

In the first half of 2008, a number of objects were commissioned.

In May, Tunnel No. 1 on the Tuapse - Adler North Caucasus Railways was opened.

As part of the rail-air link between Savelovskaya Station in Moscow’s and the capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian Railways has constructed and put into operation an electrified double-track 8-kilometer section from the stop at Sheremetevskaya to the airport Sheremetyevo-2.

On June 20, 2008, the reconstructed Korshunovsky Tunnel became operational again. The Tunnel has a capacity of 18 pairs of trains a day and can handle train speeds of 60 kmph and above.

In August, it is scheduled to complete the reconstruction of railway bridges across the Obvodnoy canal on the Moscow route of October Railways, the train station at Vyazniki on Gorky Railways and the Yaroslavl Children’s Railway.

Also scheduled for completion is the construction of the Children’s Railway in Kemerovo West Siberian Railways.

In addition, it is planned to put into operation a clinic in Yekaterinburg, install microprocessor centralisation at Klin Station on October Railways and undertake a comprehensive reconstruction of the railway automation devices and telemechanics on the section between Kurgan - Kamensk-Uralsky on South Urals Raiwlays and Sverdlovsk Railways.