The fact that railway high-speed is a “must-have” of the modern society and one of the main transport and economic development engines is a benefit acknowledged by the authorities of each country whether they have high-speed infrastructures or not. For Russia, the awareness on the contribution of these projects to the country’s development is visible and the authorities encourage investments and launch high-speed projects.
Russia has plans to expand its high-speed network by 12,000 km by 2030 and these plans require investments worth USD 200 Billion. According to the company’s web site, estimates show that the allocation of investments will increase passenger traffic by over 30% in the country and by 37% on international routes, and will significantly reduce traffic on the existing transport corridors.
“Modern rail traffic is impossible without high-speed services. By 2025, the length of the high-speed network will be of 40,000 km. Consequently, it is necessary to keep in mind that every rouble invested by the government in the development of high-speed lines has a return of 3 roubles”, declared Alexander Misharin, First Vice President of RZD.
Currently, Russia is already developing projects for high-speed services between St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg, for the construction of a line dedicated to high-speed trains, with costs being estimated at USD 35 Billion. Also, there are fast trains between St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, but they use the existing line, also used for freight traffic, which reduced the speed of passenger trains. High-speed trains are also operated on the line St Petersburg-Helsinki.
Recently, Russian Railways has announced that “the development of high-speed lines is set as priority”, according to Misharin. He also said that a separate high-speed railway would be built to connect Moscow to St. Petersburg, and later on, similar projects would be implemented on the East-West axis, the strategic direction being Moscow. The high-speed railways will link the largest cities in European Russia and Siberia and “talks are today held on rail high-speed projects between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk”, added Misharin.
In April, during one of his visits to the production units of Evraz, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the Russian Government favoured the construction of high-speed railways. Evraz also announced that starting with 2014 it would begin delivering the 100-m rails to RZD, the manufacturer being, in fact, the first domestic company that would begin to manufacture these special, long rails for high-speed (previously, RZD bought these special 100-m long rails from Nippon Steel – Japan). “No matter what they say, the development of high-speed railways is ahead of us and it depends on these rails”, declared Medvedev. Evraz could also sell the new type of rails on the foreign markets, being interested to export them to Austria and Germany. The Direct Investment fund and RZD are currently studying how to make high-speed projects profitable and to attract private investors, declared the director of the Fund, Kirill Dmitriev.
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