Russian rail has reached a new antirecord. Freight trains are now going at speeds not seen since the 1960s – that is, rather slowly. Part of the issue lies with an excess in wagons on the rail network, which, despite its efforts, Russian Railways (RZD) does not seem to be able to combat effectively.
When taking idling time into account, Russian freight trains achieved an average speed of 35,7 kilometres per hour in 2024, a new low since 1993. When purely looking at speeds when moving, Russian trains achieved an average speed of 40,6 kilometres per hour, which is the lowest speed since 1960, according to the Moscow Times citing a Russian rail expert.
On average, Russian freight trains in 2024 became between four and five per cent slower. When compared to 2021, their speed declined by 10 per cent.
Excess wagons
Besides war and shortages of locomotives, spare parts and staff, an excess in wagons is one of the persistent problems that is slowing down Russian trains. In October, to much dissatisfaction from the side of Russian rail operators, Russian Railways decided to remove 100,000 excess wagons from the rail network. That would have reduced the amount of wagons to 1,1 million.
Now, Russian media are reporting that there is a record 1,382 million wagons on the network as of 1 January. Rather than a reduction in the number of wagons, the last months of 2024 seem to have grown their amount rather significantly, contrary to RZD’s policy. There is now a surplus of 400,000 wagons, says RZD’s general director Mikhail Glazkov.
RZD’s effort do not seem to help much
“Of course, the excess wagon fleet is exerting a negative effect on the reliability of freight deliveries. As a result, the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the sector are having a negative trend”, Glazkov said. In October, 39,000 identical empty wagons headed in opposite directions, meaning that there were 400 trains needlessly carrying “not freight, but air”.
At the same time, RZD says that it has managed to reduce the excess fleet by 75,000 wagons, and 116,000 wagons have been sent away from the public access network. That has yielded some positive results, according to the rail operator – the average speed grew by 2 kilometres per hour. However, average train speeds usually spike by approximately 2 kilometres an hour during wintertime in Russia. It does not seem that RZD’s proclaimed success holds up – especially when considering the record amount of surplus wagons on the network.