Rail transport in Russia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Russian railways are one of the economic wonders of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century world. In length of track they are second globally to the railways of the United States. In volume of freight hauled, they are third behind the United States and China, using the standard measure of ton-kilometers. And in overall density of operations – here the standard measure is (freight ton-kilometers + passenger-kilometers)/length of track – Russia is second only to China.

Russia is a much larger country than either the United States or China, so its rail density (rail track/country area) is lower than that of these other two – much lower in the case of the United States. Since Russia's population density is also much lower than that of these other two (excluding Alaska from the U.S. measure in this case), the Russian railways carry their freight and passengers over very long distances, often through vast, nearly empty spaces; their average length of haul is second in the world, behind only the United States and essentially tied with Canada. Coal and coke make up almost one-third of the freight traffic and have average hauls of around 1500 kilometers, while ferrous metals make up another 10 percent of freight traffic and travel an average of over 1900 kilometers. Many remote shippers and customers have access either to only very poor alternative shipping options by road or water, and/or access to those alternative options for less than the entire year.

Though like most railways RZhD carries both freight and passengers, it is one of the most freight-dominant railways in the world, behind only Canada, the United States, and Estonia in the ratio of freight ton-kilometers to passenger-kilometers. Measured by the share of freight carried, RZhD is second to none among the world's largest railways in its importance to its country's economy.

The Russian railways are divided into seventeen regional railways, from the October Railway serving the St. Petersburg region to the Far Eastern Railway serving Vladivostok, with the free-standing Kaliningrad and Sakhalin Railways on either end. However, the regional railways are closely coordinated by the central authority – the Ministry of the Means of Communication, MPS, until 2003, and the Joint Stock Company Russian Railways, Rossiiskie Zheleznyie Dorogi or RZhD, since then – including the pooling and redistribution of revenues. This has been crucial to two long-standing policies of cross-subsidization: to passenger operations from freight revenues, and to coal shipments from other freight.

The Russian railways were a collection of mostly privately owned and operated companies during most of the 19th century, though many had been constructed with heavy government involvement and financing. The tsarist government began mobilizing and nationalizing the rail system as World War I approached, and the new communist government finished the nationalization process. With the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the Russian Federation was left with three-fifths of the railway track of the Union as well as nine-tenths of the highway mileage – though only two-fifths of the port capacity.

In this century, substantial changes in the Russian railways have been discussed and implemented in the context of two government reform documents: Decree No. 384 of 18 May 2001 of the Government of the Russian Federation, "A Program for Structural Reform of Railway Transport", and Order No. 877 of 17 June 2008 of the Government of the Russian Federation, "The Strategy for Railway Development in the Russian Federation to 2030". The former focused on restructuring the railways from government-owned monopoly to competitive sector; the latter focused on ambitious plans for equipment modernization and network expansion.

Statistics, current

Russian Railways accounts for 2.5% of Russia's GDP

Gross domestic product

Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....

. The percentage of freight and passenger traffic that goes by rail is unknown, since no statistics are available for private transportation such as private automobiles or company-owned trucks. In 2007, about 1.3 billion passengers and 1.3 billion tons of freight went via Russian Railways. In 2007 the company owned 19,700 goods and passenger locomotives, 24,200 passenger cars (carriages) (2007) and 526,900 freight cars (goods wagons) (2007). A further 270,000 freight cars in Russia are privately owned (needs source).

In 2009 Russia had 128,000 kilometers of common-carrier railroad line, of which about half is electrified and carries most of the traffic, over 40% was double track or better.

Industrial railroads

Besides the common-carrier railroads that are well covered by government statistics there are many industrial railway

Industrial railway

An industrial railway is a type of railway that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics or military site...

s (such as mining or lumbering railroads) whose statistics are covered separately, and which in 1981 had a total length almost equal to the length of the common carrier railroads. Currently (2008) they are only about half the length of the common-carrier system. In 1980, about two-thirds of their freight flowed to and from the common-carrier railroads while the remaining third was internal transport only on an industrial railroad. (For example, a lumber company uses its private industrial railroad to transport logs from a forest to its sawmill.) In 1981, there was 33.4 thousand kilometers of narrow gauge. About 4% of the industrial railroad traffic was on track jointly "owned" by two companies.

Hardware overview

Russian railways were modernized mostly during the Soviet period and achieved world class hardware status.

Couplers

The SA3 coupler

SA3 coupler

The SA3 coupler is a type of railway coupling used mainly, but not exclusively, in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union.Railways in Russia used European buffers and couplings from their inception. These couplings had three main limitations. Firstly the load was limited. Secondly, the...

(Soviet Automatic coupler, model 3) used in Russia is more advanced than the Janney coupler

Janney coupler

The Janney coupler, also known as a knuckle coupler, buckeye coupler, alliance coupler and AAR coupler is an automatic coupler patented by Eli H...

used in the United States. Advantages of the Russian SA3 include: 1. It is always ready to couple, unlike the Janney coupler which requires that at least one of the couplers has its knuckle open. 2. It has greater gathering range.

While the Russians may have the best designed coupler in the world, there were problems with it breaking due to making it with lower quality steel, low quality of maintenance/repairs/rebuilding, and coupling cars at speeds higher than allowed by the rules. The quality of steel was improved but other problems remained.

Railway Universities

Railway universities prepare students for careers in various aspects of railroading. They were formerly known as: "railway colleges". During the Soviet period they were often known as "higher educational institutes" (for railroads) оr вуз , (an acronym ), and this designation is still in use. In 1967 (Soviet period) they had a total of 215,000 students enrolled, about half of which were correspondence students. However, less than 7000 students graduated each year, mostly in engineering (such as electrical, mechanical, or civil engineering with emphasis on railroad applications).

Today (2010), about 20 years after the demise of the Soviet Union that founded many of these colleges, railway universities are still quite active. Two major railway universities in 2010 are in St. Petersburg and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

Petersburg Government University of Railways official site (a little in English)
Moscow State University of Railway Engineering (MIIT)
Moscow State University of Railway Engineering
Moscow State University of Railway Engineering is the leading and largest higher education institution in the field of railway transport in Russia with more than 17,000...

official site (a little in English)

The Moscow "University claims to be the 5th largest university in the world in terms of the number of students (about 60,000).
This excludes correspondence students but might include students in the over 40 branches of the university in other cities and also might include students in the "technikum" (which is something like an advanced trade school) that merged into the university. However only "17,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students" are claimed on the English part of the official university website:

Other Railway Universities in Russia (with more precisely translated names like "Samara Government University of Railways") in 2010 are:

Samara Railway University (wiki) official site located in Samara
Samara, Russia
Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
Omsk Railway University (wiki) official site located in Omsk
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
Rostov Railway University (wiki) official site located in Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
Far East Railway University (wiki) official site located in Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...
Irkutsk Railway University (wiki) official site located in Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
Siberian Railway University (wiki) official site located in Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
Ural State University of Railway Transport official site located in Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
Russian Open Academy of Transportation (wiki) official site headquarters in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

(The "Open Academy" is a correspondence school and is part of the Moscow Railway University: MIIT).

The above universities often have branches in other cities. Railway trade schools "technikumi" may have been taken in under the university umbrella. The above websites often include pictures of campuses, students, etc. For full access to the websites (which includes class assignments, etc.) one usually needs an account (including password) which only the students, etc. may obtain.

There are also ex-Soviet railway universities in other countries that once were part of the Soviet Union. For example, see

Ukrainian Railways#Railway Universities.
Belarusian State University of Transport
Belarusian State University of Transport
Belarusian State University of Transport is a university in Gomel, Belarus....

official site

Russians today seem to be highly motivated to obtain a college education, even if the job prospects are not very good. It was thought by some that under capitalism, there would not be the surplus of college graduates that existed in the USSR. But it turns out that there is an even greater surplus today.

Command & control system

Since 2010 the company had started an overhaul of its computer systems. The overhaul will centralize the management of data into new computing hubs, restructure the collection of information on the railroad's field operations, and integrate new automation software to help the railway strategize how to deploy its assets. The geriatric machines that the new mainframes will replace include Soviet-built clones of IBM's Cold War–era computers, called ES EVM

ES EVM

ES EVM was a series of clones of IBM's System/360 and System/370 mainframes, released in the Comecon countries under the initiative of the Soviet Union since the 1960s. Production continued until 1998...

(the transliterated Russian acronym for "unified system of electronic computing machines").

Foreign activities

The RZD operates the Armenian Railway

Armenian Railway

The Armenian Railways are the national rail operator in Armenia. The , gauge network is electrified at 3 kV DC.The operating environment has deteriorated since the collapse of the Soviet Union...

until 2038. During this period, at least 570 million euro will be invested, 90% going into infrastructure.

In North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

the RZD participates in the upgrade of the Tumangang

Tumangang

Tumangang Workers' District is a town in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea. It is the closest town of North Korea to the border with Russia. Tumangang sits on the Tumen River, and across the river is the Russian town of Khasan. A train connects Khasan with Tumangang and from there to Rason. A road also...

—Rajin line near the Sea of Japan and in the building of a container terminal in Rajin.
Trans-Eurasia Logistics

Trans-Eurasia Logistics

Trans-Eurasia Logistics is a joint venture between German and Russian rail companies Deutsche Bahn and RZD, operating container freight trains between Germany and China via Russia. The first such train arrived in Hamburg from Xiangtan on October 6, 2008, taking 17 days to make the trip...

is a joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

with RZD that operates container

Containerization

Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...

freight train

Freight train

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...

s between Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

via Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

Joint ventures have been formed to build and operate a port in Rasŏn in North Korea

North Korea

, and rail links connecting that port to the Russian rail network at Khasan

Khasan

Khasan is an urban locality in Khasansky District of Primorsky Krai, Russia. Population: Khasan is the only Russian settlement on the border with North Korea. It lies near Lake Khasan and the Tumen River...

Rail links with adjacent countries

Voltage of electrification system

Railway electrification system

A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...

s not necessarily compatible.

Same gauge:
- Finland
  Rail transport in Finland
  The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 km of railways built with Russian gauge track. Passenger trains are operated by the private state-owned VR Group. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, though railway connections are available to fewer places than bus...
  
  , the difference to is so small that the same rolling stock can be used
- Estonia
  Rail transport in Estonia
  The rail transport system in Estonia consists of circa of railway lines, of which are currently in public use. The infrastructure of the railway network is mostly owned by the state and is regulated and surveyed by the Estonian Railway Inspectorate ....
  
  , same approximate gauge as Finland
- Latvia
  Rail transport in Latvia
  Rail transport in Latvia is done on Russian gauge. The main railway company is Latvijas dzelzceļš.Historically Latvia had lot of different rail gauges, most notably standard gauge and narrow gauge.- Rail links with adjacent countries :...
- Lithuania – only from the Kaliningrad Oblast
  Kaliningrad Oblast
  Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...
  
  enclave
- Belarus
- Ukraine
- Georgia
  Georgian Railway
  Georgian Railway LLC is the national rail company of the country of Georgia.A vital artery linking the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, it sits on the shortest route between Europe and Central Asia...
  
  – currently, only connects with the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia; the line beyond, to Georgia proper, is closed for political reasons.
- Azerbaijan
- Kazakhstan
- Mongolia
  Rail transport in Mongolia
  Rail transport in Mongolia is an important means of travel in the landlocked nation with few paved roads. According to official statistics, rail transport carried 93% of Mongolian freight and 43% of passenger turnover in 2007. The Mongolian rail system employs 12,500 people. The national operator...
Break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...

:
- China, break-of-gauge
  Break-of-gauge
  With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
  
  to
- North Korea
  Rail transport in North Korea
  Rail transport in North Korea is provided by Korean State Railway which is the only rail operator in North Korea. It has a network of 5,200 km of track with 4,500 km in Standard gauge. There is a small narrow gauge railway in operation in Haeju peninsula...
  
  , break-of-gauge
  Break-of-gauge
  With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
  
  to
- Poland
  Rail transport in Poland
  The Polish railways network consists of around of track as of 2008, of which the vast majority is electrified using a 3 kV DC overhead line system.Poland is a member of the International Union of Railways...
  
  – only from the Kaliningrad Oblast
  Kaliningrad Oblast
  Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...
  
  enclave - break-of-gauge
  Break-of-gauge
  With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
  
  to
  - Note that break-of-gauge between Poland and Belarus near Brest
    Brest, Belarus
    Brest , formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug and Brest-Litovsk , is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet...
    
    are in use of Russian Railways mostly
None:
- Japan
  Rail transport in Japan
  Rail transport in Japan is a major means of passenger transport, especially for mass and high-speed travel between major cities and for commuter transport in metropolitan areas.-Overview:...
  
  , see Sakhalin–Hokkaidō Tunnel
- Alaska, but proposed via Bering Strait crossing then onwards the main part of the United States
  Rail transport in the United States
  Presently, most rail transport in the United States is based on freight train shipments. The U.S. rail industry has experienced repeated convulsions due to changing U.S. economic needs and the rise of automobile, bus, and air transport....
  
  via a proposed link through Canada
  Rail transport in Canada
  Canada has a large and well-developed railway system that today transports primarily freight. There are two major privately owned transcontinental freight railway systems, the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway. Nation-wide passenger services are provided by the federal crown...
  
  .
- Norway
  Rail transport in Norway
  The Norwegian railway system comprises 4,087 km of track of which 2,622 km is electrified and 242 km double track. There are 696 tunnels and 2760 bridges....
  
  , but possible via Finland
  Rail transport in Finland
  The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 km of railways built with Russian gauge track. Passenger trains are operated by the private state-owned VR Group. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, though railway connections are available to fewer places than bus...
  
  and Sweden
  Rail transport in Sweden
  Rail transport in Sweden uses a network of 13,000 km of track, the 20th largest in the world. Construction of the first railway line in Sweden began in 1855. The major operator is the state-owned SJ AB....
  
  with a break-of-gauge
  Break-of-gauge
  With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
  
  to at Tornio
  Tornio
  Tornio is a town and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. The population density is , with a total population of . It borders to the Swedish municipality of Haparanda...
  
  -Haparanda
  Haparanda
  Haparanda is a locality and the seat of Haparanda Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 4,778 inhabitants in 2005. It is adjacent to Tornio, Finland...
  
  . A link has been proposed between Kola
  Kola Peninsula
  The Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast...
  
  network and the existing and isolated Norwegian mining railway to Kirkenes
  Kirkenes
  is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...
  
  , including a probable widening of the gauge (10 km in length) on the Norwegian side from to .