OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2011. According to the latest figures, in October 2011 the Russian rail network shipped 9% more coal than in September 2011 and 5.2% more than in October last year, reported the press-centre of RZD.

In all, 26.5 million tons of coal were delivered to customers in October, of which 16.3 million tons were shipped from the Kuzbass region served by West-Siberian Railways. On average, 7,614 freight wagons loaded with coal were dispatched from stations in the region every day.

Last month, coal shipments increased by 1.7 million tons compared to September 2011 and by 500,000 tons compared to October 2010, an increase of 2.6%.

In accordance with instructions from President Dmitry Medvedev and a decree by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian Railways is taking all the measures necessary to improve traffic management given the current imbalances which have arisen among the private fleet of rolling stock. A special working group headed by Russian Railways First Vice-President Vadim Morozov was set up, and the measures implemented helped to stabilise the situation by easing the problems with the routing and logistics of freight shipments.

Since President Medvedev gave his orders to take additional action to facilitate coal exports, between 12 and 31 October 2011 total freight shipments in the Kuzbass region served by West-Siberian Railways amounted to 12.7 million tons, including 10.9 million tons of coal.