Transport infrastructure plays one of the primary roles in strengthening and maintaining the state economy. Thanks to the development of railway transport in Russia, carrying out transportation of bulky and multi-ton cargo, the full-fledged work of all sectors of the national economy, the supply of regions, and industrial enterprises is ensured. Rail transport is essential for ensuring the economic security and integrity of the country.
Russian Railways
Today, Russian Railways is an all-encompassing transport system with thousands of passenger traffic and freight turnover. Actual indicators of technical equipment testify to the real prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia. It can be briefly described using the following data:
- operational length - more than 90 thousand km;
- the total length of double-track lines is more than 40 thousand km;
- electrified lines - about 40 thousand km;
- the length of the main tracks is 126.3 thousand km.
Rolling stock and domestic railway facilities allow freight transportation on trains weighing 10-12 thousand tons.
The railway transport network occupies a leading position among all modes of transport. Despite the fact that over the past decades, bus and air services have developed rapidly, Russian Railways remains the main tool for ensuring the mass movement of goods and passengers both within the country and abroad.
First railroad tracks
The history of the development of railway transport in Russia dates back to the middle of the 16th century. The first analogues of modern railways arose on the territory of stone and sand quarries, at mine excavations and coal mines. Then the road was a long lounger made of wooden beams. Horses could carry heavier loads on similar tracks than on regular country roads. The bars quickly wore out, because of which the wagons often went out of the way. In order for the wooden beds to last longer, they began to be strengthened with iron, and in the XVIII century - with cast iron sheets. To prevent the descent of the carts from the tracks helped the edges on the beds.
So, in Petrozavodsk in 1778 a rail made of cast iron was built, the length of which was 160 m. At that time, the ruts were built much more modern (no more than 80 cm), and the rail itself was angular.
The period of development of railway transport in Russia in the first half of the 19th century is characterized by a more intense pace. 30 years after the construction of the first 160-meter cast-iron track, a two-kilometer horse-cast-iron road appeared. A significant leap in the history of the development of railway transport in Russia occurred during the period from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
So, in 1913, the mileage of the railway network within the current borders of the country reached almost 72 thousand km. At the same time, the paths were placed randomly and unevenly. Most of the roads were in the European part of Russia. The locomotive fleet consisted of low-capacity steam locomotives (500-600 hp), and biaxial-type freight cars had an average load capacity of 15 tons.
Development Strategies for Russian Railways
In 2008, the Government approved a concept for improving the railway infrastructure until 2030. The strategy for the development of railway transport in Russia contains a description of the set of planned measures to create and improve railways, improve existing ones and adopt new requirements for rolling stock.
This program is divided into two stages. The first was implemented from 2008 to 2015, the second was launched from 2016. The development of railway transport in Russia is based on the principles of increasing the resource and raw materials potential of the industry and introducing innovative modern technologies. The currently relevant Strategy involves the construction of more than 20 thousand km of roads until 2030.
To date, the construction of railways has already been completed:
- Midnight - Obskaya - Salekhard (length about 850 km);
- Prokhorovka - Zhuravka - Bataysk (the total length of the tracks is about 750 km);
- Kyzyl - Kuragino (460 km);
- Tommot - Yakutsk, including a site on the left bank of the Lena (550 km).
If the planned measures for the construction and commissioning of railways are implemented, the total length of the routes to the end of the term will increase by 20-25%. The document, which defines the role of the prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia, focuses on the importance of this system of passenger and freight services for solving problems of strengthening economic sovereignty, national security and increasing the level of defense. In addition, the above Strategy implies a reduction in total costs in the transport segment of the national economy. An interesting detail in this context is that a similar plan, which is being implemented in parallel with the Transport Strategy of the Russian Federation, was drawn up exclusively for the development of railway transport in Russia.
The real situation in the railway infrastructure
In recent years, a decline in production and a decrease in labor productivity indicators have been noticeable on Russian railways. The used rolling stock not only prevents the increase in cargo turnover, but also helps to increase the number of emergency situations on the ruts. Immediate reconstruction and overhaul is required for a significant number of railway and train stations.
Today, trains, wagons, locomotives and special equipment produced in the USSR, Germany and Czechoslovakia are operated on the railways of our country. The issue of the release of new equipment is under the control of the commercial holding companies Transmashholding, Sinara, IST and the state-owned enterprise Uralvagonzavod. Over the past ten years, rolling stock on the most popular routes "Moscow - St. Petersburg" and "St. Petersburg - Helsinki" replenished with high-speed trains of the German company Siemens and the French manufacturer Alstom.
The main player on which the prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia depend is JSC Russian Railways. The companies of this largest holding in the country own their own railway infrastructure, a fleet of cars and rolling stock.
Cargo transportation on Russian Railways
In Russia, there are several types of freight traffic on rail tracks:
- local - within the same route;
- direct - within the boundaries of one or more railway junctions under a single travel document;
- direct mixed - means combined transportation by several means of transport (in addition to railway, water, automobile, air, water-automobile, etc. can be used);
- direct international - is carried out during the carriage of goods on road sections of two or more states according to a single document.
Features of the development of railway transport in Russia, engaged in the transport of goods, are the differences in speed of delivery. So, the main part of freight trains is engaged in the transport of goods for which specific transport conditions are not required. Cargo compartments in passenger trains (luggage compartments) are intended for the transport of mail, correspondence, and personal belongings of passengers. For the delivery of perishable goods using high-speed rolling stock. The maximum permissible speed with which trains can move is 160 km / h.
Features of land railways in the capital
Other regions may envy the development of railway transport in Moscow. Despite the demand for constantly upgrading metro lines, it is planned to build and reconstruct about 80 kilometers of railways in the capital over the next 2-3 years. By 2019, according to a representative of the Moscow urban development complex, five new stations will appear in the city at once.
Despite the fact that just a few years ago, intercity and intercity electric trains in Moscow were considered obsolete and ineffective, today experts say that land railways are able to provide the same carrying capacity, the same traffic frequency, traffic volume and passenger comfort that there are subway. In addition, the authorities of the capital are confident that the construction of railways is a less expensive industry than the construction of the subway.
The length of the Moscow structure of Russian Railways is more than 13 thousand kilometers of railways, despite the fact that this type of transport serves about 30 million passengers, and this is approximately one fifth of the Russian population. Another feature of the development of railway transport in Moscow is the exit of infrastructure far beyond the borders of the agglomeration and the coverage of about ten subjects of the Central Federal District. The thing is that the railway of the capital was originally intended as an intersubject infrastructure, allowing to solve inter-regional and inter-city problems of transport communication. Fundamental changes have occurred since the launch of the MCC.
Ring railway artery of Moscow
The central suburban passenger company, which launched the MCC, explained the success of the project by the appearance of the actual possibility of movement in any direction of the railway connection with transfers. This system of commuter trains was created to integrate radial stations. Now Muscovites and guests of the capital do not experience problems with trips outside the Moscow Ring Road. So, for example, it will not be difficult to get from the Kazan direction to the Severyanin by transferring to the MCC along the Frazier or towards the Yaroslavl highway.
Since the opening of the Moscow Central Ring in less than a year, almost 100 million passengers have traveled through it. Despite the increased popularity of trains, while they are used as an alternative and additional form of railway transport in Russia. The development stages of the MCC are implemented along the path of strengthening the integration of the subway with the land rail network.
The main problems of railway in our country
Along with the strengthening of the industrial economic sector, there is a stage in the formation and development of railway transport in Russia. The problems of this sphere are gaining importance against the backdrop of global trends in technological and technical modernization, the introduction of innovative developments in railway transport.
At the moment, it is necessary to strive to reduce the gap between the quality of Russian railways, rolling stock and the infrastructure of foreign competitors. To catch up, first of all, we need to consistently solve the main industry problems and eliminate a number of issues that impede the targeted development of railway transport in Russia.
It is necessary to proceed from the fact that the main goal of the functioning of the railway system is a fast, convenient, inexpensive (that is, economically viable) and safe transportation of passengers and cargo delivery not only within the country, but also abroad. The main problems of the Russian railways as an integral infrastructure are two negative determinants:
- lack of economic progress and the effectiveness of the provision of transport services, including lack of speed, low level of comfort with the unreasonably high cost of passenger transportation;
- low degree of technical reliability and operational safety of trains and rail tracks.
The first group includes conflicts of the technological and managerial sectors, negating the feasibility of railway infrastructure and inhibiting the growth of its financial efficiency. The second category includes the difficulties of technical production, equipment and operation: the problems of the safe operation of equipment, technical means, the lack of a fully functioning model of labor protection for industry employees, and adverse environmental impacts on adjacent territories. These problems will only worsen with the development of railway transport in Russia.
Briefly about solutions to problems
To eliminate the described imperfections of the domestic railway infrastructure, a set of measures will be required to effectively modernize it, guaranteeing the integrity and strengthening of the economic space of the Russian Federation, but without prejudice to the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of movement. The current Strategy involves a phased solution to the problems of railway transport by creating conditions in Russia to achieve the fundamental geopolitical and geoeconomic goals of the state. No less important is the reloading and updating of the existing infrastructure base, which is fundamentally significant for socio-economic growth in the country. To develop the railway industry, it is also necessary:
- to ensure transport accessibility for resource provision points and production progress;
- to provide additional jobs, provide railway workers with social guarantees, including the right to annual rest, the right to treatment, and education;
- bring the level of quality and safety of passenger traffic in accordance with the requirements of the population and international standards;
- ensure maximum carrying capacity and reserves to create the optimal number of offers in case of market fluctuations;
- continue integration into the international railway system;
- maintain a high level of emergency response skills consistent with defense and security requirements;
- strive to increase the investment attractiveness of railway infrastructure;
- maintain social stability in the sphere and ensure a decent quality of life for workers, observe the priority of youth policy and support for industry veterans;
- introduce high standards of labor productivity with sustainable provision of the transportation process by qualified specialists.
Is it worth developing railway transport?
In an age of overwhelming integration processes, railway infrastructure has acquired the status of a mechanism, a kind of lever for the division of labor. In addition, the railway sector can be considered as a strategic object of the impact of globalization in the world. Russian railways are also a high-tech theoretical field of economics. In order to maintain the achieved position and continue to improve the infrastructure, it is important to create all the conditions for the latest scientific and technical developments in the country.
Railways in Russia annually increase by several thousand kilometers. The sphere of railway transport is an integral segment of the modern economy of developed countries.