OREANDA-NEWS. June 22, 2011. Haulage of Ekibastuz coals from northern Kazakhstan in Freight One wagons doubled from January-May 2011 over the previous year. The company hauled a total of 2.6 million metric tons of coal from Ekibastuz deposits to CHP plants in Ural region during the period.

Freight One hauls coal to large thermal power plants in the region including the Reftinsk, Nizhneturinsk, Krasnogorsk and Verkhnetagilsk plants, which provide power to industrial and residential areas of the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Perm and Chelyabinsk regions.

We remind you that in late 2010 the Russian Energy Ministry approved a three-way agreement among Russian Railways (RZD), Kazakhstan Railways (Kazakhstan Temir Joly) and Freight One to increase coal shipments from the Ekibastuz deposit in Kazakhstan to CHP plants in the Ural region and Siberia.

There are currently 28 organized routes of Freight One gondolas being operated from Ekibastuz to the Ural region and Siberia. To ensure timely and complete deliveries, Freight One works with the dispatch center of the Sverdlovsk Railway to monitor the movement of coal trains along the entire route.

It is expected that the increasing need for Ekibastuz coals will require Freight One to increase the number of trains on the route to 30. International haulage with Kazakhstan accounts for about 45% of Freight One’s freight traffic in the 1520 mm gauge zone, which includes the CIS countries, the Baltic countries, Mongolia and Finland. So far this year, Freight One has increased haulage between Russia and Kazakhstan by 160% over last year.