News / Volumes fall as staff shortages and technical problems beset RZD

Photo: Russian Railways

Russian Railway’s (RZD) August freight volumes dropped 6% year on year, as staff shortages and troubles with its rolling stock continued to make themselves felt.

Writing on Telegram, the carrier noted that total loaded volumes for the month amounted to a little over 97 million tonnes, with year-to-date volumes also having decreased by close to 4%, compared with the eight months to September 2023.

The shortfall comes despite heightened demand for capacity, with the drop seemingly tied to the carrier’s inability to run some services or keep some locomotives operating.

Earlier this year it was reported that a lack of lubricants had left RZD some 50,000 train services short, while many of its engineers were being conscripted into the war effort, further hindering its capacity to meet the spike in demand following the onset of war in 2022 and Russian shippers being cut off from western air, ocean and rail capacity by sanctions.

As a result, Russian shippers turned in their droves to RZD’s box services linking to countries that had not imposed sanctions, including China, and while those volumes continue to grow, the carrier’s capacity to meet them is being increasingly hobbled.

And it is now having to contend with repercussions from the Ukrainian counter-invasion.

Long-term, the loss of staff to the war continues to make itself felt, but RZD has reportedly been working on securing locomotives and wagons domestically to leave it less beholden to spare parts from western-based companies.