14 марта 2024 — 16:00
Russian Railways (RZD) will modernize approaches to ports in the North-West of the country by 2030, which will ensure an increase in freight traffic to 220 million tons.
This was stated by the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov during a speech at the government hour in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, writes Delovoy Peterburg.
Russian Railways has set targets to increase the carrying capacity of the port infrastructure.
Cargo transportation through the ports of the North-West will eventually grow by 74.4 million tons, through the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin — by 27 million tons, up to 152 million tons, in the direction of the Far East — by 37 million tons, up to 210 million tons.
All together, this will make it possible to achieve an annual growth rate of freight traffic volumes of more than 2% per year, which will amount to "almost plus 200 million tons by 2023," Belozerov said.
Container transportation, according to him, will grow by a third, up to 10 million TEU (TEU). Over 6 years, Russian Railways container shipments have grown by more than 11% annually and reached 7.4 million TEU in 2023, the head of Russian Railways noted.
The Northwestern Federal District is home to Russia's largest ports — Ust-Luga, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Primorsk. Major ports are also located in Vyborg and Vysotsk.
Belozerov previously stated that in order to achieve the volume of cargo transportation up to 220 million tons in the North-West of the Russian Federation, new railway tracks need to be built. By the middle of last year, freight transportation by railways of the Northwestern Federal District was estimated at 145 million tons.
The head of Russian Railways also noted the role of the Moscow — Petersburg high-speed railway (HSR) for the development of freight transportation. Russian Railways plans to implement all high-speed railway projects in Russia within 10-15 years.