“This is a record”: Russian Railways doubles the volume of cargo transportation to the Far East
The Russian Railways (RZD) intends to record a record increase in the flow of cargo to the east, despite the difficulties associated with climate change.
This was announced today in the Federation Council by Oleg Belozerov, CEO of Russian Railways, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Today we are witnessing global, little-studied climate changes with severe consequences for transport infrastructure. As an example, I would like to cite two incidents with bridges in Murmansk and on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Post-accident analysis shows: rivers are changing their course. The flow power changes accordingly. The bridges were designed based on old requirements. Now we are working to clarify design solutions,” Belozerov said.
Let us remind you that on July 23, on the Kuenga-Ukurei section, near the village of Nizhnyaya Kuenga, a railway bridge collapsed due to heavy rainfall. Cargo movement was suspended for a month. A similar story happened in 2020 on the Kola River in the Murmansk region.
Despite the accidents, in 2020 Russian Railways transported a record volume of cargo to the ports of the Far East - 144 million tons. The Trans-Baikal Railway has become the busiest railway in the world.
It is planned that in 2024 the carrying capacity of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways will be 180 million tons. In 2030 – 210 million tons. For comparison, in 2015, only 98 million tons of cargo went in this direction.
The volume of investments in the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways has doubled and reached 2 billion rubles. 134 thousand people work on the construction of these roads.
"This is a record": Russian Railways doubles freight traffic to the Far East.