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03
en.rian.ru Ria Novosti news wire
Russian Railways (RZD) wants to be competitive both at home and abroad. Its President, Railway facts:
Vladimir Yakunin, is trying to give a modern look to a company stuck in the 1970s
Fast Track
Yakunin expecting
RZD
foreign manufacturers
LILIA ZLAKAZOVA_RG
1
The world’s biggest
Russian Railways operate 53127.2 milesof track
and have 1.2 million employees. Almost 1.3 billion
CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1
journeys are made on them annually and they
Other high speed rail links are carry 1.3 billion tons of freight. The railways ac-
planned. “We consider them count for more than 3.6 percent of Russia’s GDP
a competitor to passenger air-
lines,” Yakunin said. “We want
to win over air travelers. That’s
just good business.” RZD’s president, Vladimir Yakunin, attending a business luncheon 2
But High Speed rail plans gave The railway boss at the offices of Rossiyskaya Gazeta. He described the prospects for To meet needs of the state, commercial entities

Main Activities

been on the drawing board be- modernizing his company and the sector as a whole. and private individuals for rail transportat, work
fore, often meeting the buffers. VLADIMIR YAKUNIN graduat- and rail services. To generate profits. Strategic
LILIA ZLAKAZOVA_RG
There have been plans for a ed from the Leningrad Institute goal: to deepen integration into Eurasian trans-
high-speed link between Sochi of Mechanics as a mechani- tough rivals. If high-speed trains bal competition in transport. port system, increase financial sustainability and
and Moscow and on to St. Pe- cal engineer in 1972. Between had come to Russia at least 10 RZD has signed a 276 million efficiency.
tersburg and Helsinki for a long 1985 and 1991, he worked in the years ago, they would have cor- euro contract with Siemens. It
time. And the High-Speed Rail USSR’s Permanent Representa- nered a sizeable part of the mar- provides for the delivery to Rus-
Company, set up in the 1990s, tive Office at the United Nations. ket. But time was lost, and now sia of eight Velaro RUS high-
is now bankrupt. But Yakunin is In October 2000, he became they will have to jockey for it. speed electric trains. On July 3
certain he can make the service Deputy Minister of Transport; In the 1970s, Russia led the 20, in Krefeld, the Germans 1,535.7 billion rubles ($60.46 billion), consisting

Charter capital

profitable. and in February 2002, First Dep- world in high-speed travel, al- began making cars for them. of ordinary bearer shares with a nominal value of
A close look at the country’s uty Minister of Railways. though the Japanese had fast- Two more contracts have been 1,000 rubles each. The Russian Federation is the
transport links has found 18 In October 2003, the board of er trains than Russia’s R-200. signed with Italy’s Finmecchan- sole shareholder of Russian Railways.
LILIA ZLAKAZOVA_RG
major lines where high-speed Russian Railways appointed him “Unfortunately, circumstances ica and France’s Alstom.
travel is feasible, the RZD head the company’s First Deputy Pres- have held our country back,” But it is not the RZD president’s
said. ident. He has been president Yakunin said. In Europe today, intention to merely buy Western
They run to and from such trans- of Russian Railways since June high-speed rail traffic is the rule. equipment. Credit Ratings of Russian Railways
port hubs as St. Petersburg, 2005. “We are now fast approach- “We are making every effort to (as of 31.12.2006):
Moscow, Krasnodar (the region ing the time when passengers move production to Russia rath-
where Sochi is located), Sama- from Russia will be unable to er than just purchase Western
Agency Scale Date Rating
ra (central Russia) and Novosi- its work cut out for it. For sever- go further west without chang- technology,” he said. “I want to
birsk (Siberia). By 2010, these al years now, Russia has been ing trains because our rolling draw Western companies with
International scale
in international 22.12.2006 BBB+
lines are expected to carry 10% studying Europe’s experience. stock is outdated and stuck in their technologies into joint ven-
currency
to 13% more passengers than Its first low-cost airline has now the 1970s,” the president said. tures in Russia. This is the only
Standard
in 2004. appeared and will soon be fol- And this is not just a matter of way to make these technologies
& Poor’s
International scale in
national currency
22.12.2006 А-
LILIA ZLAKAZOVA_RG The company, however, has lowed by another. These are prestige. It is mostly about glo- Russian.”
-
National scale
(Russia)
22.12.2006 ruAAА
International scale
in international 26.10.2005 Ваа2
Moody’s
currency
Сonvenient way to reconnect with the Soviet past
International scale in
Second, try not to take trips that national currency
26.10.2005 A3
last longer than 30 hours. You International scale
Impressions of the train travel
get bored and a little dirty. There
in international 25.07.2006 BBB+
is only one shower on the train,
currency
in the chief conductor’s car.
Fitch International scale in
national currency
25.07.2006 BBB+
from Moscow to Chelyabinsk
Third, explore the train’s dining
National scale
car. This is the most sacred (Russia)
25.07.2006 AAA(rus)
place on the train.
The restaurant car is one of the
few remaining Soviet arche-
types. Another good thing
Numbers:
about today’s dining cars is that
they have not been renovated
since the 1980s, so you can ad-
mire the original design. By the
125
subsidiaries and depen-
dent companies
way, you will probably be wait- make up Russian Railways. Among the more
ed on by a very young and important are the construction and mortgage
good-looking waitress wearing company ZhelDorIpoteka, the telecommunica-
a lot of cheap makeup. tions company TransTeleKom, the electronics
Fourth, drink lots of tea. On the factory ELTESA, container carriage company JSC
train you will encounter a real TransContainer and perishable freight carriage
Russian tea ceremony: unlim- company JSC RefService.
ited tea is included in the price
of the ticket and the conduc-
BEATDRIFTER DMITRY KOROBEINIKOV_RIA NOVOSTI
tors will be more than happy to
42.3
thousand kilometers
What you see from a train window is the best documentary ever The restaurant car is one of the few remaining Soviet archetypes bring the tea to your compart-
ment. of electrified track make it the largest rail network
But in the end, the train ride is in the world.
Russia is 7 days wide and convenient and inexpensive absurd scenes.Every experi- tions with only two bathrooms not about the food. It is really a
14 days long, says Robert way to reconnect with the So- enced train traveller has his per car and people eating, drin- meditation, a unique state of
Updike, who prefers travelling viet past, or an even deeper, own routine and set of rules. king cheap alcohol, babies mind you sink into. You go from
by train and enjoys meeting tsarist past. I developed mine: screaming, people who traveled city to city while the sun and the
1.35
million passengers
the restaurant car waitresses. The old world charm is partially First, travel only first class. There for many days without shower- moon move around your com- used suburban and long-distance trains in 2006,
gone now, but some nice fea- are three types of cars in the ing taking their shoes off… you partment and at night you sleep 4.1 percent up on 2005.
ROBERT UPDIKE
tures linger: the glass holders Russian train: the “kupe” (qua- get the picture. The luxury sleep- without really sleeping, listen-
WRITER are still there, the first-class cars druple), the luxury sleeping car ing car, on the other hand, offers ing to the pulse of the tracks be-
are lovely, and through the (double) and the “platskart”. conservatively classy accom- neath you.
-
I go to Chelyabinsk, the large compartment window, one en- Don’t try the platskart unless you modation. It is six times as ex-
industrial city in the Urals. joys an ever-changing land- have to. Try to imagine a huge pensive as platzkart and twice
www.readrussia.com
200
billion rubles
I take the train. The train is a scape of breathtaking and often car divided into six-person sec- the cost of a kupe. ($ 7.87 billion) were invested by the Company in
development and modernization in 2006
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