OREANDA-NEWS. October 07, 2010. Russian Railways was founded under Russian Government Resolution No. 585 "On creating the joint stock company Russian Railways", signed on 18 September 2003, and in line with the Railway Structural Reform Programme. The Russian government owns 100% of shares in the company, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.     

Since its founding, Russian Railways has fully met the country’s needs for passenger and goods transport, and worked continually on the construction and modernization of its own industrial complex.

During this period, the company’s trains have transported more than 10.4 billion tons of cargo, including 2.3 billion tons of coal, 1.8 billion tons of oil and petrochemicals, 2.2 billion tons of mined construction materials, 1.7 billion tons of ore, 670.6 billion tons of ferrous metals, more than 515.3 million tons of timber, and a range of other cargoes.

Rail freight services are continuing to strengthen their positions on the global transport market. The share of rail cargo in the total freight turnover of the national transport system rose from 39.5% in 2004 to 42% to 2009, and reached 42.4% in the first eight months of 2010.

The company’s passenger count over the past seven years has exceeded 8.4 billion, of which 0.9 billion were on long-distance trains and 7.5 billion were on suburban trains.

Passenger turnover during this period totalled 1150.7 billion passenger-kilometers – of which 846 bln pkm were on long-distance services, and 304.6 bln pkm on suburban services (including 49.5 bln pkm accounted for by suburban passenger companies). A total of 19 suburban passenger companies have been set up on the railway network.

Russian Railways has taken a range of effective measures to improve the accessibility and attractiveness of passenger services. In particular, since 2007 the company has been introducing seasonal discounts each year for passengers travelling to summer holiday destinations, allowing them to save up to 40% on ticket prices. Since that year, passengers have been offered the choice of male or female carriages. The most recent innovations include a 50% discount for travel in upper bunks of sleeping compartments.

An important landmark in 2007 was the introduction of electronic ticket sales. Since this service was launched, more than 10 million passengers have used it. In 2007, 281,000 passengers used this service (0.08% of tickets sold), whereas in the first nine months of this year, 5 million people purchased electronic tickets (5% of the total number of tickets).

Russian Railways’ share in the national transport sector’s passenger turnover grew from 35% in 2004 to 37.7% in 2009, and in the first seven months of 2010 was 32.5%.

Russian Railways’ investment from the moment of its founding up to 2009 exceeded 1.5 trillion rubles. More than 990 km of new lines and secondary track, and more than 930 km of siding have been laid, and around 780 km of track has been electrified. The railway network has received, including through leasing contracts, 1,986 locomotives, around 4,500 passenger carriages, more than 59,000 freight cars, and 4,500 sections of multiple units.

An important event in the history of the modern Russian railway network is the programme to develop high-speed services. The Moscow – St Petersburg line has undergone comprehensive reconstruction. Work is being concluded to strengthen the infrastructure of the St Petersburg - Buslovskaya line in preparation for the launch of Allegro trains in December 2010.