Russian Railways: 6,000-mile container run

Russian Railways (RZD) Thursday said that the company, through its subsidiary Transcontainer, has organized for a demonstration container freight train to travel along the route between Nahodka-Vostochnaya (in the port city of Nahodka on Russia’s Far Eastern Railway) to Shushari (in St. Petersburg on Russia’s Octyaberskaya Railway) in seven calendar days, covering 9,795 kilometers (about 6,073 miles).
 

The train will consist of 50 freight cars loaded with containers of automobile parts, as well as trailers and semitrailers sent by Hyundai. The demonstration train’s arrival in Shuhari is scheduled to coincide with the Second Railway Congress in Moscow on Friday, Nov. 18.

RZD also noted on Thursday it had posted “positive” economic numbers for the first nine months of 2011, but net profit of 56.1 billion rubles ($1.81 million) slipped 19.5% below the comparable period in 2010.

The company said cargo volume rose 3% to 921.7 million tons during the nine-month span. Overall revenue from freight traffic increased 6.9%.

RZD said its passenger service revenue fell 86% to 5.2 billion rubles ($160,000) in the first nine months of 2011, attributed to spinning off long-distance services to subsidiary OJSC Federal Passenger Co. on April 1, 2010, and also handing over regional passenger services to suburban passenger companies on Jan. 1.