JSC Russian Railways does not support lifting the ban on extending the service life of cars

JSC Russian Railways does not consider it necessary to lift the ban on extending the service life of cars, which is currently being discussed by the industry and the Ministry of Transport (see “Kommersant” dated September 12). Alexey Shilo, Deputy General Director of Russian Railways, told Kommersant about this.

“Today there is no shortage of wagons,” notes Mr. Shilo. — There are enough carriages in the country. If we talk about containers, then in order to transport them, today there are absolutely enough wagons – both specialized fitting platforms and a fleet for other delivery methods – gondola cars, platforms for transporting timber cargo, etc.”

According to him, the car production technologies adopted 20 years ago will be mothballed as a result of the lifting of the extension ban, and the commercial and technical characteristics will not improve. “On the contrary, it is better for us to move along the path of accelerated renewal of the park,” he is confident. “It’s better to work on reducing costs, working on making platforms of the coupling type in order to get the most out of the same length of train, on two-level transportation of containers, in a word, moving the technology forward.”

Extending service life is stagnation, not development, he believes. Although the market’s arguments about insufficient supply and the high price of platforms are understandable, he believes that the current situation is temporary, and the transition of manufacturers to the production of more marginal cars than the standard platform is a market phenomenon. Plus, as a result of the lifting of the ban, car-building enterprises will find themselves in a difficult situation, since orders will no longer be uniform. According to Mr. Shilo, today there are no types of rolling stock that would need to lift the ban on extension.

Natalya Skorlygina