The government is preparing to radically change the tariff policy for freight rail transport by initiating the moving long-term tariff regulation in JSC RZD. The issues regarding preparation for this process, solutions to problems associated with a local shortage of cars, creation of the reserve of cars and other questions raised by “Kommersant” were answered by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Alan Lushnikov.
— In your opinion, how effective the Moscow—Kazan HSR project is?
— I am from St. Petersburg. I and my family go there from time to time. Do you remember such train named Aurora"? In early 2009 we went by this train which departed at 16: 20 and ran for 5 hours 30 minutes. My oldest daughter was younger than two years, she was very calm and could sit and look out the window all the way. Now my youngest daughter is of the same age but she's a fidget so we could not go by Aurora train, only by plane. Today we can go by Sapsan trains which reach the destination for 3 hours and 50 minutes. At such intervals the train competes with the aircraft. This new quality is called "induced demand” when supplies come up first and then demand appears.
Therefore, we as a Ministry (and me personally) believe that HSR is a very timely project, and if this project work out, it will give very serious effects at the macro level. The decision to start designing the line was made including after taking into account the indirect effects of the federal and regional budgets that this project could provide and all these effects were counted. Now we need to complete the design of the Moscow-Kazan section and organizational and financial model, and to understand how to construct it all in right way. Now we are at the stage of working discussion. I think that eventually we will put it in appropriate shape and offer it to the government. Then, there will be another challenge: in fact, we will have to start a project, to invest it, but the real income we will be able to earn only in the future after the project implementation: increase in mobility, pay raise, change in real estate prices. For this purpose everyone should believe in the project success: our Ministry, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Finance and the whole Government. It's a tough route but we follow it.
Source: kommersant.ru
