The volume of investments planned by Russian Railways (RZD) for 2018 amounts to around RUB 580 billion (USD 9.75 billion). The announcement has been made by RZD’s CEO, Oleg Belozerov, after discussions with the government in Moscow. Moreover, Moscow Municipality has also announced investments of over USD 20 billion for the development of urban and suburban rail transport.
“Turnover will amount to approximately RUB 580 billion, but, in the end, its exact value will depend on the decisions to be adopted around transport fees”, Belozerov says. Russian Railways have asked the government to analyse for 2018 the possibility to index freight transport fees by 6% while keeping the 2% investment plus it received in 2017 for eliminating track access restrictions.
According to Russian Railways data, of the RUB 580 billion (USD 9.75 billion), the company’s investment programme for 2018 stipulates that RUB 335.5 billion (USD 5.63 billion) will be directed to RZD projects dedicated to infrastructure development.
Further on, RUB 244.1 billion (USD 4.10 billion) will be granted to the implementation of projects concerning the modernisation of Baikal-Amur main line and of the Trans-Siberian, the development of programmes for the ports in the Azov – Black Sea Basin and of those in the north-west region and the development of Moscow transport hub.
“For the time being, Russian Railways have decided to allocate RUB 5 billion (USD 83 million) to renew suburban trains. We also have another investment programme worth RUB 15 billion (USD 250 million) dedicated to the procurement of new electric trains, of the Lastochka class”, said Pavel Burtsev, Business Manager of RZD’s Passenger Transport Division.
Thus, in 2018, the financing of these projects will amount to RUB 20 billion (USD 332 million), more than the annual average of the financing demand for the renewal of the rolling stock fleet which stands at RUB 14.3 billion (USD 238 million).
Lastochka electric multiple units are manufactured by Siemens in partnership with Ural Locomotives and have been developed for Russia based on the platform of Desiro trains.
They could run at speeds of 160 km/h and are used for rapid suburban and intercity transport.
More new trains in Moscow
Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, announced that, in 2018-2020, the Municipality will invest RUB 550 billion (USD 9.16 billion) every year in transport projects. Thus, in the two years, the invested amount will be of USD 18.32 billion in transport systems alone.
Projects in plan include the development of a RER network (similar to the French suburban network), providing transport connections between the existing radial routes in Russia’s capital.
Some of these lines will be upgraded and major diametrical tunnels will be bored where necessary. Transport services on these routes will operate every 5-10 minutes.
The project will be developed by Moscow Municipality, Russian Railways (RZD) and the Ministry of Transport. Other projects in plan for the suburban rail network include the relocation of railway stations on the radial routes to enhance interconnection with Moscow’s Central Rail Ring and the increase of the number of coaches for the trains that run on the Rail Ring, from five to seven.
Metro network investments stipulate the construction of new railways, including the finalisation of a third circular metro line. Also, new rolling stock will be purchased to operate on the new lines and to replace the out-of-date vehicles.
As of 2019, a new light rail line will connect two suburban railways, Belarus and Savyolovo, operated by Moscow Railway (RZD’s subsidiary in charge with suburban transport). Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has presented the project during a meeting with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who expressed his support for the urban transport project.
The new line will have a length of 50 km and will provide transport for around 42 million passengers.
On the Belarus – Savyolovo route, currently, people spend about two hours and have three interchanges traveling from Lobnya just north of Moscow, to Odintsovo, west of the capital. A new straight-through radial route will reduce travel time to less than 60 minutes, and there would be no need to make interchanges.
The light rail line has been preferred to a metro line because “it would take us many years and about RUB 250 billion (USD 4.22 billion) to build this as an underground metro line, but a light rail line can be completed in 2018, or the beginning of 2019, at the latest and with significantly reduced costs,” Mayor Sobyanin said.
Moscow city has plans to continue linking railway lines with the LRT network. The creation of a straight-through radial route between the Riga and Pavelets lines may be another route in this programme. Its construction could be completed in five years.
“Overall, we may construct between 5 and 15 light rail lines depending on the situation and passenger-traffic volume. This absolutely realistic project will change the situation for the Moscow transit hub, with up to 300 million passengers using these lines. The entire transport infrastructure, including the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), will see a 10-12 percent reduction in traffic volumes,” Sobyanin explained.
For the implementation of these projects, the Moscow Municipality collaborates with RZD.
“The creation of light rail lines would make it possible to carry passengers within the city and to combine inter-regional traffic using fast and even high-speed trains. Our plans suggest that it will take passengers no more than one hour to shuttle between airports after this project is completed,” pointed out Russian Railways’ CEO, Oleg Belozerov.
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