The decision of Russian Railways to increase the length of trains may create problems at crossings to China

JSC Russian Railways decided to lengthen the container trains running at the Eastern range to 71 conventional cars. This, according to the monopoly, will optimize the use of locomotive power and road capacity. But market participants say the decision will create problems at the junctions with the railways of China and Mongolia, where shorter trains are accepted, so transportation times may increase.

As Kommersant learned, from December 10, 2023, Russian Railways, by telegram, introduced a mandatory length of at least 71 conventional cars for container trains formed for the Eastern training ground (“Kommersant saw the telegram”). The monopoly explained to Kommersant that the formation of container trains of a standard length for the Russian Railways network is necessary for the efficient use of infrastructure: “With a shortage of capacity at the Eastern range, the departure of shorter, and generally lighter, container trains will lead to incomplete use of locomotive power, useful length of station tracks and to non-fulfillment of target parameters for the passage of freight traffic. By comparison, one train carrying coal, ore or fertilizer carries three times as much cargo as a 55-car container train.”

But market participants talk about problems arising as a result at the junction with the railways of China and Mongolia. In particular, we are talking about the largest border crossing with China, Zabaikalsk-Manchuria. On the Chinese side, explains Kommersant’s source in the industry, a train arrives with imported cargo 55 wagons long, and the need to wait for the accumulation of 71 wagons increases transit times.

Director of RTSB-RUS Alexander Baskakov adds that in December the PRC sharply reduced its plan for receiving export trains from Russia. About 80 trains with export cargo have already accumulated at the border, which “hold” wagons planned for import: “Delivery times will increase by an average of 25–30%, which affects the attractiveness of rail transportation for customers.”

At the same time, the head of Trans Synergy (part of the ESP) Stanislav Stankevich and Kommersant’s interlocutor in the industry deny the presence of significant restrictions on the part of China at the Zabaikalsk-Manchuria border crossing. “It can withstand the volumes that China confirmed in receiving both Zabaikalsk and Mongolia,” emphasizes Mr. Stankevich. The Kommersant source adds that in December there were restrictions on the Russian side, explained by the need to remove mandatory volumes of export coal from the regions by presidential decree, the accident in the Severomuysky tunnel and frosts. According to him, Russian Railways is already taking measures to remove accumulated containers, the situation is expected to improve in the coming week, and, according to his assessment, it will finally return to normal by the second half of February.

“The concern concerns transportation through Mongolia (Naushki-Zamyn-Uud) to a greater extent,” explains Stanislav Stankevich, “because the Mongolian railways do not accept trains with a length of 71 conventional cars, and they immediately announced to Russian Railways that if on Naushki-Sukhe “Trains with a length of 71 cars will arrive at Bator, they will disband them and transport 57 cars with a train discount, and the remaining cars will be shipped by carload without a train discount and with appropriate delivery times to Zamyn-Uud.” But so far, the top manager admits, the company has not encountered such problems, since all clients continue to travel according to previously agreed upon requests on trains 57 cars long.

To Zabaikalsk, says Mr. Stankevich, most of the trains were already 71 cars long, and the fact that trains with 55 cars come from China was not a problem, since the operators that own the terminals there, for example, TransContainer and Russian Railways Business Active, Historically, they accepted three Chinese trains and formed two Russian ones from them with a minimum remainder. JSC Russian Railways claims that the situation at the Zabaikalsk-Manzhouli border crossing is working, recalling that transportation through the crossing increased by 32.2% in 2023, to 22 million tons, including in December – by 32.5%, to 1. 86 million tons.

The initiative of JSC Russian Railways is generally positive for the market, says Kommersant’s source in the industry, it will increase the carrying capacity and availability of locomotive crews. On the other hand, he admits that this decision may create problems at a number of border crossings, which “could lead to the switching of part of the cargo flow to maritime services.”

Natalya Skorlygina