OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2011. The President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin has said that the most important task of Russian Railways is to set up through transportation and logistics services and integrate the work of railway stations, freight yards, owners of cars, customs brokers and the transportation side to provide through transport services at transparent pass-through rates,"

According to Yakunin, solving this problem will require a qualitatively new level of cooperation between the Centre for Corporate Transportation, the Central Directorate of Traffic Control, the Central Directorate for the Management of Terminal and Warehouse Facilities and the subsidiaries of freight companies. In developing a through service on a contractual basis, it is also essential to involve subcontractors: neighbouring railway companies, industrial enterprises involved in railway transport, ports, road shippers and terminal owners.

Vladimir Yakunin said that the priority here was to increase the competitiveness of rail transport in container traffic.

"We will continue to build a network of container trains, automate the management of container transportation, improve rates and develop terminals. A serious contribution to such work should be made by our subsidiary Russian Railways-Logistics. Only focused work to meet the complex needs of clients, our flexibility in setting tariffs and the unconditional fulfilment of the obligations we take on will increase the volume and profitability of our shipments in the new environment," said Yakunin.