Oleg Belozerov Declares RZD’s Goals

On November 10–11 in Vienna, Austria, the 24th plenary meeting of the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation took place. It was attended by President of JSC Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov; members of the Council; and representatives from the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Organization for Co-Operation between Railways (OSJD), and the International Union of Railways (UIC).[quote font=”georgia” font_size=”18″]

“Today our meeting was attended by about 200 representatives from 27 countries, which illustrates, first and foremost, the relevance of the coordinating council. I am honored to lead this prestigious international association that brings together more than 100 rail, shipping, and operating companies and ports,”

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said Mr. Belozerov.

In his speech he noted that, despite the overall decline in Trans-Siberian transport in the current year, as a whole in this area there have been positive changes.
“On the Trans-Siberian Railway, nearly 2 million TEUs of containers were transported in the last year, of which more than 750 000 was in international traffic. During the first 9 months of the current year, the volume of traffic on the Trans-Siberian decreased by almost 8% when compared to the same period last year and amounted to a little more than 1.2 million TEU. Of these, about half the containers were transported in international traffic,” said the president of Russian Railways.

However, according to him, under these conditions the carriers have more actively fought for their clients by providing new services and increasing the number of routes of delivery.

Also, special attention is paid to creating the necessary transport and logistics infrastructure. JSC Russian Railways is implementing the modernization of the eastern section of Russian Railways, which will increase the speed of delivery and efficiency of transportation, as well as provide the ability to transport an additional 66 million t of cargo a year.

As part of project to connect the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Korean railways, JSC Russian Railways reconstructed the Khasan (Russia)–Rason (DPRK) railway station and built a universal cargo terminal in the port of Rason.
In addition, work continues on drafting a new Eurasian transport corridor: extending the 1520 mm broad gauge to Bratislava and Vienna in order to maximize the connection of the railway system in Central Europe and Asia Pacific through the Trans-Siberian Railway.

According to Mr. Belozerov, ensuring high-quality service demands the construction of a favorable regime of customs procedures.

[quote font=”georgia” font_size=”18″]“In this regard we are working closely with the Federal Customs Service of Russia. In order to implement procedures for the prior notification of customs authorities, a system is being created for the exchange of information between JSC Russian Railways and the FCS in regards to electronic data,”[/quote]

he said.
As part of the CCTT E-Train project, the Federal Customs Service of Russia confirmed its readiness to take part in the experiment on applying mobile navigation and control hardware, including the development of automation technology to simplify and expedite customs procedures at border stations.