Express International

The restoration and development of international passenger rail service will be a priority task of the Council on Railway Transport of CIS member states next year.

The 81st meeting of the Council on Rail Transport of the States members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) chaired by the Director-General and Chairman of the Board of JSC «RZD» Oleg Belozyorov was held in Tashkent this week.

The event in Uzbekistan was the first one-to-one format since October 2019. According to the opinion of the chairman of the board of directors, Victor Popov, the restoration of face-to-face format will contribute not only to better understanding but also to more efficient cooperation between railway administrations of 1520 space.

The memorandum on cooperation in the field of a common information space for international rail passenger transport was signed in Tashkent. The document was signed by the railway administrations of Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. Other members of the council may subsequently join the agreement.

Development of a common information space for passenger transport will positively affect the transport connectivity of the countries of the Commonwealth, their economic growth and tourist attractiveness. In practical terms, this sets the vector for improving technological processes in the passenger segment for each railway administration», commented Oleg Belozyorov.

The meeting discussed freight transport. In the first nine months of 2024, 1.2 billion tons of cargo were transported between participating countries, which is roughly equivalent to last year’s level. The volume of container traffic has been growing rapidly - it has grown by more than 20% year-on-year and reached almost 55 million tons.

Special attention was also given to the development of international transport corridors, in particular the promotion of MTK North-South routes. On the eastern branch of MTK, the railways of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are developing a regular container service (since 2022 35 container trains have been sent to Iran and in transit to India and the Gulf countries). The volume of traffic is also increasing on the west side of the corridor.

 

The link for automated passenger transport management systems between countries will be Express International, which will allow to synchronize data on stations and schedules of international trains.

As noted by Oleg Belozorov, there is now a recovery in passenger transport volumes, which decreased significantly during and after the coronavirus pandemic. For example, in the nine months of 2024, 7.3 million passengers were transported internationally, which is 15% more than last year’s figure.

Old routes are restored and new ones are started. For example, from 24 September the train runs from Tashkent to Moscow, and there are discussions about the possibility of resuming passenger trains from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Moscow in 2025. The Russian Federation and Belarus are working on a WSC project that will allow us to get from Moscow to Minsk in three hours.


«It is very valuable that today, in the midst of great changes, when coordinated approaches are especially important, railways strengthen interaction», - stressed Oleg Belozorov.

The next meeting of the Council on rail transport of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States will be held in June 2025 in Tajikistan.