The officials of the aggressor country came up with an initiative to create a “consolidated fleet for solving state problems,” which means transferring the wagons of private operators to the management of Russian Railways.

Private freight cars

So far, this is not yet called nationalization, but private traders have already been criticized harshly, and the operators themselves are dissatisfied with the future prospects. This is reported by the railway magazine Railway Supply, citing CFTS.

The Russian publication Kommersant recalled that earlier the speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matvienko, spoke out against private wagon operators.

“They have earned enough, having received wagons almost free of charge from the state. Enough, now let them turn on. Those who find responsibility remain on the market, and those who do not, thank you, goodbye… This is not how they work in a mobilization economy… The railway must always strictly fulfill state tasks during the mobilization period, including those who infiltrate to the railway,” she said, and added: “Let them (the operators) get a certain profit, no one is talking about withdrawal or nationalization now. But they need to be put in their place.”

After that, the apparatus of the Russian government turned to the Ministry of Transport of the aggressor country, JSC Russian Railways and the Union of Railway Transport Operators with a request, by April 10, “to process and provide an agreed position on the formation of a consolidated fleet of cars to ensure socially significant transportation and fulfill state tasks, as well as to development of tools for the evacuation of unclaimed empty wagons that impede the movement of goods.

Private wagon operators of the Russian Federation are dissatisfied with such initiatives, stating that they did not get wagons for free.

“82%  out of the total fleet are wagons manufactured from 2004 to 2022, that is, they were not “privatized free of charge” from the property of the Ministry of Railways, they were purchased from manufacturing plants after the Ministry of Railways was liquidated and JSC Russian Railways appeared. – specified in one of the comments.

It is noted that the idea of transferring a private fleet to the management of Russian Railways was repeatedly tested by the monopoly itself and turned into big losses.

According to one of the experts, the problems with the efficiency of rail transportation are primarily due to the actions of Russian Railways over the past six years – the volume of overdue repairs has increased from 16 to 28%, which is equivalent to a 2% drop in load, work on the Eastern range has been disrupted, there is also specialists drain.

The Union of Railway Transport Operators said that attempts to centrally manage the pool of private cars were repeatedly made by Russian Railways in 2011-2014, but all of them led to negative consequences for cargo owners.

In general, Russian experts state that traffic on the railway network leaves much to be desired.
As previously reported, Russian Railways plans to raise freight rates from April 1 and has asked for a subsidy to service debts.

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