Russian Railways is having difficulties servicing its locomotives

From the reports of JSC Russian Railways it follows that the monopoly has difficulties with servicing locomotives: the number of trains suspended due to “under-maintenance of the locomotive fleet” more than doubled in 2023. JSC Russian Railways confirms the presence of problems. Service companies say they have begun proactively replacing critical parts, which should reduce the number of malfunctions. Analysts note a shortage of components and personnel among service organizations and do not see prospects for a quick improvement in the situation.

The number of trains suspended due to problems with locomotives increased noticeably in 2023, as follows from the disclosure of information by Russian Railways on Form 9g-8. First of all, this concerns the number of trains delayed due to reason 22 – “the absence or waiting of the carrier’s locomotive due to the lack of maintenance of the operating fleet of locomotives to the established plan for types of traffic.” It increased 2.4 times, to 42.6 thousand.

The problem of the absence or waiting of locomotive crews (reason 23), which was repeatedly emphasized by market participants as extremely significant, did not manifest itself so acutely in 2023: the number of downtime for this reason decreased by 15.7%, to 3.7 thousand.

Due to the large volume of locomotive repairs and their long stay with service companies, the ability to remove cargo is reduced, as noted by Russian Railways.

“JSC Russian Railways forms a transportation plan based on a certain level of technical readiness of locomotives, that is, the proportion of time when they should be in working condition,” the monopoly reports. “However, for reasons beyond the company’s control, this indicator is not met.” Russian Railways adds that the situation worsened especially strongly in the fourth quarter of 2023.

In an interview with Kommersant, Deputy General Director of Russian Railways Alexey Shilo noted that due to systemic problems in the maintenance of locomotives, due to the fault of service companies, it was not possible to transport about 2 million tons of cargo at the Eastern training ground, although the problems with import substitution and personnel at enterprises are quite objective (see “Kommersant” dated March 4). IPEM Deputy Director Vladimir Savchuk says that the shortage of personnel, especially highly qualified personnel, remains an important factor, primarily in the Far East, where employees “easily move to other network companies and large industrial enterprises.”

The LocoTech company (which provides locomotive servicing) explains that it took control of the service business more than ten years ago.

“During this time, both the fleet itself and the equipment maintenance standards have changed,” the company says. “Under previous conditions, it was not possible to meet the planned locomotive reliability indicators laid down in our main agreement with the customer.”

Over the past two years, regulatory and technical documentation, standards for the consumption of material and technical resources, the number of personnel for each type of repair and series of locomotives have been revised, LokoTech says. “Now, for certain types of maintenance, we must change critical inventory items regardless of their condition,” the company notes. “For example, brushes of electrical devices, the wear of which gave us a large percentage of failures, or brake pads, the load on which has increased due to increased weight of trains. Preventive replacement of these items should reduce the number of malfunctions that occur.” The company adds that the results of the experiment will be summed up in the second half of the year.

According to Rollingstock Agency editor-in-chief Sergei Belov, there are several reasons for problems with the service. Firstly, there is significant wear and tear on the equipment in repair depots, which has been accumulating for decades. Secondly, a significant part of the fleet consists of mainline diesel locomotives of the TE116/TE116U platform, which were produced in Lugansk and contain a significant share of the component base produced in Ukraine. The first locomotives of the modern series also had a decent import component. Against the backdrop of recent events, it was necessary to create analogues, develop relevant industries, develop new units – this is time and people. According to the latter, thirdly, there is the most acute shortage.

President of the National Research Center for Transportation and Infrastructure Pavel Ivankin notes that, based on the forecasts of Russian Railways, in 2024 more than twenty trains every day will not be provided with locomotive traction due to low-quality routine maintenance. He believes that the situation will not improve in the near future, since it seems that Russian Railways has exhausted its ability to influence locomotive suppliers to speed up repairs.

Natalya Skorlygina