Russian Railways continues to implement its major project “Modernisation of the Railway Infrastructure of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian Main Line Railways with the Development of Through and Carrying Capacity.”
In 2019, 49.5 km of second tracks and 50.9 km of station tracks were laid, more than 180 switching points installed, 5 traction substations and one sectioning point on the contact network retrofitted and upgraded, and three locomotive facilities on the Far Eastern Railways constructed and reconstructed. In addition, five railway bridges were also commissioned, including the bridge crossing over the river Seea, as well as the Vladivostok Tunnel. Two residential houses for workers were built at Smolyaninovo and Volochayevka stations.
Since 2013, Russian Railways has been implementing a set of priority measures to develop the railway infrastructure in the Far East of Russia in order to eliminate bottlenecks on the railways of the Trans-Baikal region and the Far East to ensure additional freight transport capacity for Russian companies.
By the end of 2019, more than 114 million tons of freight had been transported to the Far East, nearly twice the volume of the 58.1 million tons in the base year of 2012.
As a result, Russian Railways has already reached its target to increase the rail capacity in Russia’s Far East to 55 million tons of freight above the level of 2012. By further implementing the programme, the Company plans to transport up to 124.9 million tons of freight to the Far East in 2020 and thus reach the maximum set increase to 66.8 million tons.
In accordance with the project as approved by the Russian government, under the implementation of the first phase it was planned to ensure the transportation of between 113.2 and 124.9 million tons of freight from the main mineral deposits and fields in Russia’s Far East in 2020, or from +55 to +66.8 million tons compared to the base year of 2012.