The main carrier of weapons for the occupying army of the Russian Federation, Russian Railways, continues to feel the destructive pressure of the sanctions.

Russian Railways problems

It is reported by the railway magazine Railway Supply with reference to Rail.insider.

Recall that Russian Railways was among the first to fall under the sanctions.

As of last week, according to the Russian Ministry of Transport, one of the results of this was that more than 150 000 empty wagons were idle on the Russian Railways network. This was reported by the state news agency “TASS”.

“The change in the direction of freight traffic caused by sanctions restrictions, the rapidly changing market conditions create an accumulation of unclaimed rolling stock. Currently, more than 150 000 empty wagons are idle on the Russian Railways network without cargo operations. This negatively affects the operational environment, complicates the movement of loaded wagons,” the transport department said.

At the same time, it is reported that the access roads of industrial enterprises can take only 63 000 wagons for storage. So the rest remain on the tracks of Russian Railways. In the event of a moratorium on the collection of fees for the placement of these unclaimed empty cars, the losses of the monopolist are estimated at about 1 billion rubles a year.

The company itself confirms the catastrophic condition with unclaimed wagons. The surplus of wagons is estimated at 137 000 units, including 37 000 gondola cars. Most of the unused rolling stock is at the landfills in the north-southwest.

“A significant number of these wagons are idle on public tracks, which in some cases complicates the movement of trains,” the company said.

Another real threat to Russian Railways is the seizure of property due to the inability to repay loans (in other words, default).

“A number of the holding’s loan agreements with banks provide for covenants that allow early demand for debt repayment … 200 billion rubles are at stake,” reports the Russian edition of Vgudok.

In total, Russian Railways has 1.3 trillion rubles of long-term liabilities, 0.2 trillion rubles of which are bank loans. At the same time, almost 0.3 trillion rubles of debt is denominated in Swiss francs, almost 0.1 trillion in euros and slightly less in US dollars and pounds sterling.

“Arrests can be imposed, for example, at the Finnish border. There might be some problems there. But I think it can be solved. But the issue of monopoly ownership abroad is acute, ”one of the experts quotes the publication.

In order to solve the problems of Russian Railways in the face of sanctions pressure, the Russian government plans to capitalize the company. At the expense of the National Wealth Fund, it is planned to purchase preferred shares worth 250 billion rubles by private subscription.

According to Russian Railways Telegram, part of these funds is planned to be used to modernize the railway infrastructure of the BAM and Trans-Siberian Railways (the request for this direction now exceeds the capacity), as well as the purchase of traction rolling stock necessary to ensure uninterrupted transportation.

In addition, an increase in railway tariffs for freight transportation is expected.

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