There are more and more faulty freight wagons in Russia. The country cannot keep up with maintenance needs. Ukrainian attacks on oil storage facilities also contribute to the shrinking usable wagon fleet. As of March 2026, 11% of all freight wagons are not fit for operations.
In total, there are 158,000 Russian freight wagons sitting on the sidelines — nearly double the amount of H1 2025. At the end of June last year, there were around 86,000 wagons in need of repairs (6% of the entire fleet).
The data comes from a report by the Russian Institute of Problems of Natural Monopolies (IPEM). It says that a decline in wagon rental rates of over 70% reduced the income of operators. This forced the latter to reduce spending on maintenance.
As a result, the monthly number of repaired wagons declined from around 39,000 in late 2024 to a maximum of 23,000 in early 2026. Russia will need to repair over 30,000 wagons per month to support the usable wagon fleet at a level of 1.2 million units. In order to restore some of the 158,000 faulty wagons, the pace of repairs should nearly double from what it is now.
Ukrainian attacks
“The operators’ financial situation hasn’t improved, and they don’t have more resources for repairs”, commented the director of IPEM, Vladimir Savchuk. “However, the threat of a wagon shortage is forcing them to increase repair volumes to avoid running out of serviceable fleet to fulfill contracts. Taking wagons on the side is also no longer an option, as there are now also faulty wagons that haven’t undergone scheduled repairs.”
Reportedly, there is also a growing problem with the availability of tank wagons. Following Ukrainian attacks on Russian port oil storage facilities, these wagons are used as storage facilities.