Russian Railways develops railroad partnership with Belarusian Railway

Russian Railways shares experience and develops cooperation with their colleagues from the Belarusian Railway (BZhD). In October, the representatives of the two national carriers held talks and launched an international working group to implement various rail freight transportation projects. The parties discussed expanding interaction on the use of digital solutions and increasing the volume of goods transportation between the countries. 

Interstate partnership

According to the Russian Railways data, the dynamics of rail transportation to and from Belarus in 2023 rose by 48% over January-September compared to the same period last year. Imports from Belarus by rail increased by 37%, while exports grew by 11.8%. The growth was driven by oil and timber cargoes, ferrous metals and grain.

"We are going to move forward from where we stand now, aiming to strengthen our cooperation not only in terms of transportation volumes, but also by utilizing more modern approaches," said Alexei Shilo, Deputy Director General of Russian Railways and Head of the Center of Corporate Transportation Services (CCTS), during the talks. 

Belarusian Railway’s First Deputy Chief Pyotr Dulub confirmed that Russia and Belarus are seeing close cooperation in terms of economies, infrastructure, transshipment and rail traffic. 

Digital solutions

It was the Russian Railways Project Center that came forward with the initiative to create a joint international working group. The center is engaged in developing new services for the holding company’s customers. 

"Logistics and digitalization are of key importance for the economy of each state, so Russian Railways places a special focus on these areas," said Dmitry Gvozdev, Head of the Department for Development and Integration of Transport Products and Services of the Center of Corporate Transportation Services (CCTS). 

At the moment, the Russian Railways portfolio includes a number of projects with good prospects for international development. For example, Russian Railways believes that it is necessary to expand the geography of application of the electronic trading platform "Freight Transportation" (ETP FT), through which the service customers can order rail transportation and rolling stock via the Internet. 

Russian Railways Marketplace is another holding company’s project worth noting. It gives customers the ability to sell and buy goods: the option already includes the railroad delivery fare while the goods’ transportation is arranged via ETP FT. Russian Railways’ subsidiaries - Digital Logistics and Russian Railroads Logistics, are involved in this project. Today, there are about 2,000 registered users on the platform. 

Another product Russian Railways has offered to its Belarusian colleagues is the new digital solution “Multilog”: door-to-door transportation in the “one-stop-shop” format that consolidates all participants of the transportation logistics market, including motor transport, terminal infrastructure and railway logistics. The service allows clients to pay for transportation per a single invoice, while the route is built taking into account the use of different types of transport.

“Seeing the geopolitical changes that unfolded in recent years, we have felt the need for some additional decision-making with regards to providing services for our customers. I expect that together we will be able to make sure all procedures are simplified for cargoes to reach the transshipment points and destination points,” BZhD’s first deputy head Pyotr Dulub expressed his hope. 

Alexander Solyanik