News / Railfreight round-up: Russia discounts; new locos for KTZ; UK fee waivers

© Jacques Kloppers

In this week’s rail round-up: Russian Railways (RZD) has expanded a discount scheme, Kazakh Railways is eyeing-up new locomotives and the UK has waived track access charges for new traffic.

RZD has been actively pushing shippers to make use of its excess of empty open wagons for box movements, offering a 20%+ discount on its Far East services since invading Ukraine in 2022.

But, with pressure mounting on Russian railfreight following Ukraine’s counter invasion, RZD has expanded the scheme to services on the Zabaykalsk crossing, close to Mongolia.

The counter invasion into the Kursk region led RZD to urge the Belarussian authorities to halt freight services because of overcrowding across Russian stations in the west and congested tracks, eating into the availability of container wagons.

Sources suggested the congestion had, in part, been created by Ukrainian forces gaining access to Russian transport systems and rerouting trains filled with troops.

One source, writing on social media, noted that because of the design of Russia’s digitised railway system, once someone has access through any of the country’s stations, they have “access to the entire network”.

If the effort to drive boxes onto open wagons is successful, it may be help reverse the ground Russia has steadily lost to trans-Caspian routings on China-Europe shipments.

Over the seven months to August, these routings witnessed a 1,400% year-on-year increase in container volumes moving by rail, with Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan having actively engaged China in promoting the route and developing its infrastructure.

Kazakh operators saw a 63% year-on-year increase in their railfreight volumes over the seven months. And with that following similar growth over the whole of 2023, the Kazakh government has sought to develop the route with partners in China; the two countries signing agreements that will see border crossings and terminal procedures digitised.

Nor does it look like the country will surrender the ground lost to the likes of RZD: Kazakh Railways (KTZ) is in the market for 574 new locomotives over the next five years.

According to a Telegram message, the Kazakh national carrier said that “by 2029, 374 modern locomotives will be purchased, with 100 shunting and 100 mainline locomotives to be purchased from the Chinese CRRC Corp”.

Meanwhile, UK railfreight volumes may see a boost on the back of the government and rail regulator Network Rail waiving track access charges for new traffic.

The scheme, set to run until March 2025, is designed to encourage new freight flows onto the tracks. Rail minister Peter Hendy said the policy was intended “to make moving goods by rail the obvious choice for businesses”.