From December 10, 2023, JSC Russian Railways introduced a mandatory length of at least 71 conventional cars for container trains formed for the Eastern range. If there is a shortage of capacity at the Eastern range, sending shorter, and generally lighter, container trains will lead to incomplete use of locomotive power, useful length of station tracks and failure to meet the target parameters for freight traffic. By comparison, a single train carrying coal, ore or fertilizer carries three times as much cargo as a 55-car container train.
Most trains to Zabaikalsk are still 71 cars long. Trains with 55 cars come from China, but the operators that own the terminals, for example TransContainer and Russian Railways Business Active, have always accepted three Chinese trains and formed two Russian ones from them with a minimum balance.
The Russian Railways initiative, according to experts, will increase the carrying capacity and availability of locomotive crews. On the other hand, such a solution could create problems at a number of border crossings, which “could lead to the switching of part of the cargo flow to maritime services.” Let us remind you that as part of the development of the Grodekovo (RF) – Suifenhe (PRC) railway border crossing, the Russian side is considering the possibility of extending the tracks of three stations. We are talking about lengthening the tracks to 71 conditional cars at the Grodekovo II, Sosnovaya Pad and Rassypnaya Pad stations. This will make it possible to drive freight trains on the Ussuriysk (RF) – Suifenhe (PRC) section weighing 6,300 tons and 71 conventional cars long, reducing operations to change the weight of the train at the Grodekovo station.
Information provided by the site logirus.ru.
