What about railway transport. The value of railway transport. The main indicators of the work of railways

To date, almost a million kilometers of railway lines have been laid on the territory of the leading countries of the world. Many developments have been invented to improve railway transport: from trains moving from electricity to trains that move on a magnetic cushion without touching the rails.

Some inventions have firmly entered our lives, while others have remained at the level of plans. For example, the development of locomotives that would run on nuclear energy, but because of the high environmental hazard and high financial costs, they were never built.

Now the world's first railway is being developed for a gravity train, which will move due to its inertia and

Rail transport has great potential. More and more new ways of traveling by rail are being invented, despite the fact that everything in this area seems to have been invented long ago.

The origin of rail transport

The very first railways began to appear in the middle of the 16th century throughout Europe. It could not be called rail transport in full. Trolleys pulled by horses ran along the tracks.

Basically, such roads were used in the development of stone, in mines and mines. They were made of wood, and horses could carry a lot more weight on them than on a regular road.

But such rail tracks had a significant drawback: they quickly wore out, and the wagons went off the tracks. In order to reduce the wear and tear of wood, they began to use cast-iron or iron strips for reinforcement.

The first railways, the rails of which were made entirely of cast iron, began to be used only in the 18th century.

First public railroad

The world's first passenger railway was built in England on October 27, 1825. It connected the cities of Stockton and Darlington and was originally intended to carry coal from the mines to the port of Stockon.

The railway project was carried out by engineer George Stephenson, who already had experience in operating and managing railways in Keelingworth. To begin construction of the road, had to wait for the approval of Parliament for four years. The innovation had many opponents. Horse owners did not want to lose their income.

The very first train that carried passengers was converted from coal trolleys. And in 1833, for the rapid transport of coal, the road was completed to Middlesbrough.

In 1863, the road became part of the North Eastern Railway, which is still in operation today.

underground railroad

The world's first underground railway was a breakthrough in the field public transport. The British built it first. The need for the subway appeared at a time when Londoners were fully acquainted with traffic jams.

In the first half of the 19th century, clusters of various carts arose on the central streets of the city. Therefore, they decided to “unload” traffic flows by creating a tunnel underground.

The London underground tunnel project was invented by the Frenchman Marc Izambard Brunel, who lived in the UK.

The tunnel was completed in 1843. At first it was used only as a but later the idea of ​​the subway was born. And on January 10, 1893, the grand opening of the first underground railway took place.

It used locomotive traction, and the length of the tracks was only 3.6 kilometers. The average number of passengers carried was 26 thousand people.

In 1890, the trains were modified, and they began to move not on steam, but on electricity.

magnetic railroad

The world's first railway, on which trains moved, was patented in 1902 by the German Alfred Seiden. Construction attempts were made in many countries, but the first one was presented at the International Transport Exhibition in Berlin in 1979. She worked for only three months.

Trains on a magnetic railway move without touching the rails, and the only braking force for the train is the aerodynamic drag force.

To date, they cannot compete with the railway and the subway, because, despite the high speed of movement and noiselessness (some trains can reach speeds of up to 500 km / h), they have a number of significant drawbacks.

First, large financial investments will be required for the creation and maintenance of magnetic roads. Second, maglev trains. Thirdly, it causes great harm to the environment. And, fourthly, the magnetic railway has a very complex track infrastructure.

In many countries, including the Soviet Union, they planned to create such roads, but later abandoned this idea.

Railways in Russia

For the first time in Russia, the predecessors of full-fledged railways were used in Altai in 1755 - these were wooden rails in the mines.

In 1788, the first railway for factory needs was built in Petrozavodsk. And for passenger traffic in 1837, the railway St. Petersburg - Tsarskoye Selo appeared. It was steam-powered trains.

Later, in 1909, the Tsarskoye Selo Railway became part of the Imperial Line, which connected Tsarskoe Selo with all lines of the St. Petersburg Railway.

Purpose, scope, advantages, disadvantages of railway railway

Rail transport (RT) is a type of land transport designed to transport passengers and goods along rail lines. It is a single technological complex of linear enterprises and institutions for industrial, personnel and social purposes and is part of the country's unified transport system.

Types of rail transport:

main general use (in Ukraine it is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport and Communications and is the main one in terms of traffic),

intracity public rail - subway, tram (in Ukraine it is subordinate to the Ministry of Public Utilities),

industrial not for general use (railway transport of industrial enterprises and organizations of state and other forms of ownership),

military not for general use (subordinate to the Ministry of Defense).

Each of them has its own railway network (broad, narrow gauge), its own infrastructure, its own rolling stock and its own management structures.

Rail transport is highly versatile. Different kinds rolling stock and freight wagons make it possible to transport completely different cargoes, including perishable and dangerous ones, requiring special transportation conditions. high throughput, high level security, low cost of transportation (especially over long distances) and independence from weather conditions, seasons or time of day-- main advantages railway transportation over other modes of transport.

In modern conditions of market relations, rail transportation is highly competitive compared to other modes of transport due to its economy, versatility and other advantages mentioned above. For these reasons, they still remain the most common in the field of passenger and cargo transportation.

Like every mode of transport, the delivery of passengers and goods by rail has its own flaws . Firstly, not all settlements and other objects have railway tracks. In this case, it is required to first organize the delivery of cargo by rail, then reload it onto a road or other type of transport and transport the cargo to its destination. Such a delivery scheme increases the total cost of transportation. In addition, when organizing rail transportation, they are irrational for short distances, and for long distances, clear planning of transport connections and routes on the railroad is required. Due to the different gauge on the borders with other countries (in Ukraine - on the western border), additional technical means and downtime of the rolling stock are required when replacing their undercarriage or when reloading. Railway speeds below the speeds of air transport, approximately the same or higher than the speeds of motor transport and pipeline transport, but significantly higher than the speeds of water transport (river and sea).

Transport plays a large and important role in the system of social production. The transport system is a complex complex of various branched communication routes, conditionally divided into two types: main and intra-production. Rail transport is undoubtedly the leading link in the transport system and ranks first among other types of passenger and freight transportation.

Rail transport in Russian Federation is an integral part of the unified transport system of the Russian Federation. Rail transport is one of the most important basic sectors of the economy. It plays a key role in providing for the needs of the population and in the movement of products of economic activities of enterprises. Given the vast expanses of Russia, railways are the guarantor of the country's economic and social development, economic reforms, strengthening of the administrative and political integrity, and the normal functioning of Russia's complex economic complex.

The leading importance of railway transport is due to two factors: technical and economic advantages over most other modes of transport and the coincidence of the direction and capacity of the main transport and economic interregional and interstate relations of Russia with the configuration, throughput and carrying capacity of railway lines (unlike river and sea transport). This is also due to the geographical features of our country. The length of railways in Russia (87 thousand km.) Is less than in the USA and Canada, but the work performed by them is greater than in other countries of the world. The main task of Russian railways is to provide reliable transport links between the European part of the country and its eastern regions.

The railway is the main economic link in the sectoral structure of railway transport. Its functions include the development of planned tasks for transportation activities, as well as the financing and development of the material and technical base of industrial production associations in order to qualitatively meet the needs for the transportation of goods and passengers, increase the efficiency of transportation work based on updating equipment and reduce material, labor and financial resources. .

The economic and technological efficiency and functioning of industries depends on the coordinated work of railway transport. Agriculture, activities of all structures with various form property. Ultimately, transport ensures the viability and vitality of society, the state and its economic relations and interaction with transport and the national economy of the countries of near and far abroad.

The railway network of Russia is divided into significant lengths and at the same time interconnected sections - 19 railways, which, in turn, consist of branches. Moscow is the largest railway junction in the country. In the European part of Russia, powerful railway lines with high technical equipment diverge from Moscow, which constitute the "main transport skeleton".

To the north of Moscow, such highways are: Moscow - Vologda - Arkhangelsk; Moscow - St. Petersburg - Murmansk; Moscow - Arkhangelsk with a branch from Konosh to Vorkuta - Labytnangi, as well as Konosha - Kotlos - Vorkuta. To the south of Moscow, the most important railway lines are: Moscow - Voronezh - Rostov - on - Don - Armavir. To the east of Moscow lie the highways: Moscow-Yaroslavl-Kirov-Perm-Yekaterinburg; Moscow - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk; Moscow - Saratov - Sol - Iletsk. Within Western Siberia and part Eastern Siberia latitudinal highways prevail: Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - Irkutsk - Chita - Khabarovsk - Vladivostok. From Samara - Kinel - Orenburg - the branch passes to the independent states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan. In the south, the highway passes through Armavir-Tuapse and further to the Transcaucasian independent states.

Rail transport is characterized by a steady increase in freight and passenger traffic, which largely reflects the expansion of the rail network. In the structure of railway transportation, freight traffic prevails. The range of goods transported by rail includes several thousand items. Railway transport accounts for 37% of the country's cargo turnover.

For comparison:

Pipeline transport 24.0%

Sea transport 2.3%

Inland water transport 5.9%

Road transport 30.5%

Air transport 0.3%

In many indicators of technical equipment, Russian railways are not inferior, and in some respects they are superior to the railways of other countries. Railway transport plays an exceptionally important role in ensuring the expanding foreign economic relations of our country.

The current trends in world trade turnover, the growth of the country's economy and Russia's active entry into world markets predetermined the high growth rates of Russia's foreign economic relations with foreign countries and increased the role of railway transport in their provision.

Of the total volume of export cargo transportation by all modes of transport, rail transport accounts for about 40%, and import - 70%. At the same time, transportation of export cargoes in direct rail traffic is 60% of their total volume carried out by rail, and in mixed rail-water transport - 90%.

Of the total volume, 125.3 million tons of export cargo and 7.7 million tons of import cargo were transported through Russian ports by rail in 2003, through the ports of the Baltic and Ukraine, respectively, 83.8 million tons and 2.1 million tons, in direct communication 97.9 million tons and 08.3 million tons.

The volume of transportation of foreign trade goods in containers has significantly increased. In 2003, 241.7 thousand TEU were transported for export and 173.8 thousand TEU for import.

IN last years measures have been taken to increase the transportation of goods in containers, by 2010 they will increase to 32 million tons, i.e. will increase by more than 2 times. The main indicators of the work of railway transport are: meeting the needs National economy in transportation for a certain period of time, compliance with the terms of delivery of goods, car turnover, sectional and technical speed, sectional speed coefficient, average idle time of a wagon under one cargo operation.

In transportation, the most important indicators are also compliance with the schedule and timetable, the implementation of the passenger transportation plan. The traffic schedule is the basis for organizing the movement of trains, it unites the activities of all departments and expresses the plan for the operational work of the railways. The train schedule is an immutable law for railway workers, the fulfillment of which is one of the most important quality indicators of the work of railways. The train schedule should provide: meeting the needs for the transportation of passengers and goods; train traffic safety; the most efficient use of the throughput and carrying capacity of sections and the processing capacity of stations; rational use of rolling stock.

Quantitative and qualitative indicators of the work of railways are important for understanding their role and developing an optimal development strategy. They are also important for a correct, unbiased understanding of the place of rail transport in the overall transport system, and in particular the relationship between rail and road transport.

The transportation process in railway transport is regulated by the approved Federal Law "Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation" dated January 10, 2003.

The scope of the Charter of Railway Transport extends to relations: arising between carriers, passengers, consignors (senders), consignees (recipients), owners of public railway transport infrastructures, owners of non-public railway tracks, other individuals and legal entities when using the services of public railway transport and non-public railway transport, and establishes their rights, duties and responsibilities. Management of the transportation process in railway transport is carried out centrally and falls within the competence of the federal executive body in the field of railway transport.

Choice effective form transport in a competitive environment is carried out on the basis of technical and economic calculations, taking into account the specific requirements of the market for transportation. When using railway transport, it is necessary to take into account the following features and advantages of technical and economic characteristics.

The advantage of rail transport is:

1) Independence from natural conditions(construction of railways in almost any territory, the ability to carry out rhythmically transportation in all seasons, unlike river transport). Modern technology makes it possible to build railways in any area, but the construction and operation of roads in the mountains is much more expensive than on the plains. About 70% of railways in the country have lifts from 6 to 10%. Large rises - from 12 to 17% - on the main roads are found in the Urals (especially on the Perm - Chusovskaya - Yekaterinburg line), in Transbaikalia and in the Far East. The straight track and the flat profile of the railway line are efficient from an operational point of view. However, when designing a route, the path is often lengthened to approach large cities and industrial centers located away from the straight line. When choosing a railway route, the possibility of screes and landslides is taken into account. Unfavorable climatic conditions complicate the construction and operation of roads.

2) The efficiency of railway transport becomes even more obvious if we take into account such advantages as high speeds of rolling car traffic, versatility, and the ability to master cargo flows of almost any capacity (up to 75-80 million tons per year in one direction), i.e. high throughput and carrying capacity, estimated at tens of millions of tons of cargo and millions of passengers per year in each direction.

3) Rail transport provides the possibility of relatively fast delivery of goods over long distances.

4) Rail transport makes it possible to create a convenient direct connection between large enterprises, which reduces the number of expensive transportation of goods.

5) High maneuverability in the use of rolling stock (the possibility of adjusting the car fleet, changing the direction of cargo flows, etc.).

6) Regularity of transportation.

7) Possibility of efficient organization of loading and unloading operations.

8) A significant advantage of rail transport is the relatively low cost of transporting goods. Of the factors affecting the cost of transporting goods by rail, the following stand out:

a) direction of transportation;

b) placement of cargo turnover (cargo density per 1 km of track);

c) the technical equipment of the line (the number of tracks, the magnitude of the lift, the type of traction - steam, diesel, electric);

d) the location of the line;

c) time of year.

All these factors depend on economic and geographical conditions. The economic and geographical features of the regions, which determine the types of goods, the direction and size of their export or import, determine transport links.

9) Availability of discounts.

The disadvantages of rail transport include:

1) a limited number of carriers.

2) low possibility of delivery to consumption points, i.e. in the absence of access roads, rail transport should be supplemented by road transport.

3) a significant need for capital investments and labor resources. Therefore, taking into account the large capital investments in the construction of railways, it is most effective to use them with a significant concentration of freight and passenger flows.

4) in addition, railway transport is a major consumer of metal (130-200 tons of metal is required per 1 km of the main line, not counting the rolling stock).

Specific quantitative and qualitative indicators of the work of railways include indicators of the volume of cargo transportation by rail by type of message: import, export, transit and local messages.

Transportation is an indicator that determines the volume of transport production. Transportations are distributed by types of messages:

1) local traffic - transportation between stations within the road;

2) export - sending goods to other roads (defined as the difference between departure and local traffic);

3) import - the arrival of goods from other roads (defined as the difference between arrival and local traffic);

4) transit - the transportation of goods received from other roads and following through this road to other roads. Transit can be defined in several ways: acceptance minus import, or delivery minus export, or total traffic minus other types of traffic (import, export, local).

Transportation for import, export and transit is called transportation in direct traffic. Two or more roads are involved in their implementation. Transportation planning by type of communication is necessary for the correct calculation of the turnover of wagons, as well as the operating costs and revenues of the road, because the road does not perform the same number of operations related to the transportation of goods in different messages.

When developing a transportation plan, such quantitative and qualitative indicators as:

Mileage of loaded wagons;

Run of empty wagons. The empty run of wagons depends on the distribution of productive forces throughout the country, in particular the areas of loading and unloading, the uneven movement in directions, the type of cargo and the specialization of the wagon fleet. Reducing the percentage of empty runs reduces the mileage of the rolling stock, as well as the work in gross ton-kilometers per unit of transportation. Consequently, savings are achieved on the maintenance of locomotive crews, fuel, electricity, the maintenance and repair of cars and locomotives, the required capital investments in rolling stock and the development of the network are reduced;

Wagon clock;

The mileage of loaded trains, the mileage of empty trains, the total mileage of locomotives, locomotive hours, gross freight turnover are all quantitative indicators. Quantitative indicators of the work of the rolling stock are used when calculating the need for car and locomotive fleets.

The quality indicators are:

Coefficient of empty run of wagons (to reduce the coefficient of empty run, it is necessary to possible extent use the loading of empty wagons in the same direction for the empty wagons.);

Ratio of empty run to loaded run;

Dynamic load of a loaded or empty wagon (dynamic load depends on the structure of freight turnover, the wagon fleet, as well as the distance traveled by wagons with small and large loads). Reducing the average dynamic load adversely affects the operation of the road. This results in the use large quantity wagons of the working fleet, hence more costs for repairs and maintenance. To increase the average dynamic load and, as a result, reduce costs, it is necessary to use wagons with the maximum allowable load, which makes it possible to carry out transportation with a minimum operating fleet of wagons;

Average daily mileage of a wagon, average daily productivity of a wagon. The decrease in the average daily productivity of a working freight car negatively affects the operation of the road. To increase the productivity of wagons, it is necessary, on the one hand, to reduce downtime, increase the speed of movement of wagons, and, on the other hand, improve the use of its carrying capacity. Moreover, measures to increase the productivity of cars should correspond to the economic efficiency of the work of transport teams;

Ratio of auxiliary mileage to lead and linear mileage of a locomotive, average train gross and net mass, average daily locomotive mileage, locomotive productivity.

Qualitative indicators characterize the degree of use of the rolling stock in terms of carrying capacity, power, time and the amount of work performed per unit of time.

The value of quality indicators depends on the technical equipment of railways and their enterprises, the use of advanced technology, the level of organization of transportation, shunting and loading and unloading operations, and other factors.

Rail transport plays an important role in the functioning and development commodity market country, in meeting the needs of the population for movement. It is the main link in the transport system of Russia and most of the CIS countries. The special role of the railways of the Russian Federation is determined by long distances, the absence of inland waterways in the main East-West communications, the cessation of navigation on rivers in winter period, remote location of the main industrial and agricultural centers from sea routes. In this regard, they account for almost 50% of the freight turnover and more than 46% of the passenger turnover of all modes of transport in the country.

The main area of ​​application of railway transport is the mass transportation of goods and passengers in inter-district (inter-regional), intercity and suburban communications, while freight transportation prevails, which provide over 80% of income. Passenger transportation by rail is dominated by suburban and local traffic (about 90% of the total number of passengers). Long-distance passenger transportation accounts for over 40% of passenger turnover.

The importance of Russian railways in the development of interstate relations with the CIS countries and international transportation is great. Historically, the railway transport of Russia, and then the USSR, developed as a single structure with the same, different from the western, rail gauge (1520 mm) and rational placement of technical equipment and auxiliary industries throughout the country. The total operational length of steel lines in the USSR in 1991 was 147.5 thousand km. After the collapse of the USSR, almost 60% of the total railway network, or 87.5 thousand km, went to the Russian Federation. The material and technical base was also torn apart, in particular, repair service, locomotive and car building. Currently, domestic production of technical equipment for railways (electric trains, freight and passenger cars) is being established, cooperation and mutually beneficial cooperation with the CIS countries and other states on these issues are developing. The density of the Russian railway network is 0.51 km per 100 km 2, which is significantly lower than the density of railways not only in developed countries, but also in most of the former republics of the USSR (in Ukraine - 2.76 km, in Belarus - 2.77 km, Latvia - 3.60 km, Georgia - 2.2 km, Uzbekistan - 0.79 km, Kazakhstan - 0.53 km per 100 km 2). It is obvious that in Russia it is necessary to build new railway lines, especially for the development large deposits fuel and raw materials in the east of the country.

Technical and economic features and advantages of railway transport are as follows:

The possibility of construction on any land territory, and with the help of bridges, tunnels and ferries - the implementation of railway communications with separated, including island, territories (for example, between the mainland and Sakhalin Island);

Mass transportation and high carrying capacity of railways (up to 80-90 million tons of cargo on a double-track line or 20-30 million tons on a single-track line per year);

Versatility of use for the transportation of various cargoes and the possibility of mass transportation of goods and passengers at high speed;

The regularity of transportation, regardless of the time of year, time of day and weather;

Possibility of creating a direct connection between large enterprises via access railways and ensuring the delivery of goods according to the "door-to-door" scheme without expensive transshipments;

Compared to water transport, as a rule, a shorter way of transporting goods (on average by 20%);

Relatively low cost of transportation compared to other modes of transport, except for pipelines.

Railway transport will continue to be the leading transport of the country, however, the pace of its development may be lower than that of automobile, pipeline and air transport, due to their insufficient development in our country. In addition, one should take into account the increasing competition in the transport market, technological progress and some shortcomings of railways - the capital intensity of the structure and the relatively slow return on advanced capital (6-8 years, and sometimes more). The construction of 1 km of a single-track railway (at the prices of the end of 1995) under average difficult conditions costs almost 7-9 billion rubles, and in difficult climatic and geological conditions in the east of the country - 2-3 times more expensive. The cost of building a double-track line is usually 30-40% higher than a single-track line. Therefore, the payback of capital expenditures in railway construction largely depends on the capacity of the developed cargo and passenger traffic on the new line. Usually, there is more production per unit of investment in the development of railway transport (ton-kilometers) than in other modes of transport (under the current distribution of traffic).

Railways are major consumers of metal (almost 200 tons are required per 1 km of track). In addition, rail transport is a very labour-intensive industry, with labor productivity lower than that of pipeline, maritime and air transport (but higher than that of road transport). On average, there are almost 14 people employed in transportation per 1 km of the operational length of Russian railways, and 1.5 people in the USA, with approximately similar volumes of transport work.

The shortcomings of Russian railways should also include the still low level of quality of transport services provided to customers. At the same time, the good technical equipment and advanced technologies of Russian railways make it possible to remain a quite competitive mode of transport.

The main elements of the technical equipment of railway transport are a rail track with artificial structures, stations and separate points with appropriate facilities, rolling stock (cars and locomotives), power supply devices, special means of regulating and ensuring traffic safety and managing the transportation process.

The railway track is an earthen bed with a ballast prism made of crushed stone or gravel, on which reinforced concrete or wooden sleepers are placed with steel rails attached to them. The distance between the inner edges of the heads of two parallel rails on the sleepers is called the gauge. In Russia, the CIS countries, the Baltic states and Finland, it is 1520 mm. Most European countries, USA, Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, the railway gauge is 1435 mm. This is the so-called normal or Stephenson gauge. In some states (India, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Portugal), railways have two types of broad gauge - 1656 and 1600 mm. In Japan, for example, medium and narrow gauges are used - 1067, 1000 and 900 mm. Narrow-gauge railways of small length are also available in Russia.

The length of the railway network is compared, as a rule, by the operational (geographical) length of the main tracks, regardless of their number and the length of other station tracks. The expanded length of railways takes into account the number of main tracks, i.e. the geographical length of a double-track section is multiplied by 2. Double-track inserts on single-track lines are also taken into account. The total deployed length of Russian railways as of January 1, 1995 amounted to 126.3 thousand km. More than 86% of this length is occupied by tracks with heavy steel rails of the P65 and P75 types, laid on wooden (75%) and reinforced concrete (25%) sleepers and, mainly, crushed stone, gravel and asbestos (on the main tracks) ballast. There are more than 30,000 bridges and overpasses along the entire length of the routes, a large number of tunnels, viaducts and other artificial structures. The length of electrified railway lines is 38.4 thousand km, or 43.8% of the operational length of the network.

There are over 4,700 railway stations on the Russian railway network, which are the main cargo and passenger points. Large passenger, cargo and marshalling yards have capital buildings and structures - stations, platforms, cargo areas and platforms, warehouses, container terminals, loading and unloading mechanisms, branched rail tracks and other devices and equipment.

Large technical stations house locomotive and wagon depots, enterprises of track service distances, signaling and communications, cargo and commercial work, and centers of branded transport services for clients. Freight stations of cities and industrial centers, as a rule, are connected by a rail track with numerous access railway lines of industrial, commercial, agricultural and other enterprises and organizations, as well as with existing sea and river ports, oil depots, etc.

The railways of Russia have a powerful fleet of modern locomotives - electric and diesel locomotives, mainly of domestic production. They carry out almost the entire volume of freight and passenger traffic, including 72.7% electric and 27.3% diesel traction. The total fleet of locomotives in the MPS system in 1998 was about 20 thousand units. Among them are such powerful freight and passenger six- and eight-axle electric locomotives as VL60, VL80, VL85, as well as ChS7 and ChS4 of Czechoslovak production; two-, three- and four-section diesel locomotives TEYU, TE116, TEP60, TEP70, TEP80 and others

with a capacity of 3 to 8 thousand kW or more, shunting diesel locomotives TEM2, TEM7, ChMEZ, etc. Electric trains of the ER2, ERZ, ER9P and ER9M types, as well as diesel trains D1, DR1 and DR2, are used in suburban passenger traffic. To master high-speed passenger traffic, an electric train ER200 was created, developing a speed of 200 km/h. Work is underway to design and manufacture new locomotives and electric trains capable of providing a technical speed of 300 km / h (for example, the Sokol high-speed train). The current locomotive fleet provides an average section speed of 47.1 km/h for passenger trains and 33.7 km/h for freight trains. The average technical speed of trains is higher than the local one, taking into account the time of intermediate stops, by about 15-20 km/h.

The fleet of freight cars (more than 700 thousand units) consists mainly of four-axle cars of predominantly metal construction with a carrying capacity of 65-75 tons. Gondola cars (41.7%), platforms (10.8%), tanks (11, 9%), including eight-axle and boxcars (10.2%). The share of specialized rolling stock is insufficient and amounts to 32% of the fleet, including refrigerated cars and tanks. The container system is also underdeveloped, especially for heavy containers for intermodal transportation.

The fleet of passenger cars consists of all-metal cars equipped with four- and two-seater compartments, berths or seating sofas with combined (electric-coal) heating, fluorescent lighting and air conditioning.

All freight and passenger cars are equipped with an automatic coupler and automatic brakes, over 60% of freight and all passenger cars have wheeled bogies on roller bearings. In recent years, due to the economic crisis, the replacement and renewal of the rolling stock of railways has slowed down, as a result of which many wagons and locomotives that have exhausted their resources are in operation.

The railway network has a large number of power supply devices (contact network, traction substations), signaling, centralization and blocking (SCB), telemechanics and automation, as well as communication facilities. There are information and computing centers on all roads. The main information and computing center of the Ministry of Railways is located in Moscow. Transportation control centers (MCC) are being created, in large transport hubs - automated dispatch control centers (ADCU) for the transportation process.

The total value of the fixed production assets of Russian railways as of January 1, 1999 amounted to more than 230 billion rubles, of which

59% is the cost of permanent devices and 34% is the cost of rolling stock. share working capital small: about 3% (in industry

25%. The predominance of the cost of permanent devices in the structure of railway funds reflects the specifics of this type of transport, the complexity of its financial situation during a period of decline in traffic volumes and a decrease in revenues that are insufficient to maintain a significant permanent part of the resources.

Railway transport in Russia is state (federal) property and is managed by the Ministry of Railways, which controls 17 railways, which are state-owned transport enterprises. The Ministry of Railways and territorial departments of railways carry out operational and economic management of the activities of lower structures: departments of roads and linear enterprises, locomotive and wagon depots, stations, track distances, communications, power supply, etc. In addition, the industry has a large number of industrial, construction, trade, scientific, design and educational organizations and enterprises, a solid social sector (hospitals, prophylactics, housing stock, etc.). In recent years, railways have gained greater economic independence, and many of their industrial and ancillary enterprises (car repair plants, industrial transport, construction and supply organizations) have separated from the Ministry of Railways system after corporatization and privatization (Zheldorremmash, Vagonremmash, Remputmash, Roszheldorsnab, Zheldorstroytrest, Promzheldortrans, Transrestoranservis, etc.). Commercial centers and rental enterprises, a banking system, an insurance company (ZHASO) and other market infrastructure organizations have been created.

Despite the difficult financial situation, a sharp decline in traffic volumes, limited budget funds, thanks to the preservation of the integrity of the industry in terms of its core activity (transportation), Russian railways consistently meet the demand for transport services of cargo owners and the population. In fact, they work on self-financing, making substantial tax contributions to the state budget and ensuring the industry's profitability at the level of 27.9% (1998). Basically, many technical and economic indicators of the work of railways are kept at an average level without sharp fluctuations (Table 4.1).

As can be seen, the railway transport of Russia as a whole is a profitable sector of the national economy of the country. However, the decline in traffic puts the railways in difficult conditions. It should be noted that the decline in transportation is associated not only with the economic crisis and the decline in industrial production, but with increasing competition from other modes of transport, especially road transport.

The result of the decline in traffic volumes is a sharp decrease (almost two times) in the quality indicators of the work of railways - the productivity of rolling stock and labor productivity (see Table 4.1). Despite the decrease in the volume of work, the number of workers employed in transportation has not decreased over this period and amounts to almost 1.2 million people. Concern for the retention of qualified personnel and social protection of workers is, of course, an important circumstance. However, the economic situation requires a more flexible approach to the profitable operation of the industry, especially since labor productivity on domestic railways is several times lower than in developed countries.

From Table. 4.1 it can be seen that during the period of market reforms, the costs of railways increased 4260 times without taking into account the denomination of the ruble, and income from core activities - only 3936 times. This speaks to the groundlessness of the reproaches of some cargo owners, especially the fuel and raw materials complex, about excessively high railway tariffs that hinder the development of these industries. However, recently, through the conclusion of inter-sectoral business agreements and the introduction of flexible tariffs that take into account the cost of goods

and the transport component in the price of products, this problem is solved positively.

Despite financial difficulties, rail transport

technical reconstruction continues, electrification of individual

Table 4.1

Technical and economic indicators of railway operation

Index	1990	1995	1996	1997	1998
Freight transported, million tons	2140,0	1024,5
Cargo turnover, billion tariff tons km	2523,0	1213,7
Medium range transportation, km
Average traffic density, mln t km/km	25,2	16,0	15,0	14,8 .	13,5
Average daily locomotive performance, thousand t km gross		802,0
Average productivity of a freight car per day, t km, net per 1 t of carrying capacity	134,9	116,4	121,5	120,2	121,0
Mass of cargo. trains, gross tons
				54,8	56,9	57,3	57,5	57,8
Average population pass. g.che	32,0	29,4	29,0	28,8	28.2
Number of employees engaged in transportation, thousand people	1119,2	1158,5
Revenue from transportation, billion rubles	25,0 2,7			91511 721	98,4* 1,1*
Income from other activities, billion rubles
Basic expenses. activity billion rubles	18,2				77,6*
Profit from all types of activities, billion rubles	7,6		-1247		21,9*
Cost of transportation, rub./10 pref. t km	0,044	390,5	635,6	661,9	0,596*
Profit rate for freight transportation, r./10 t km	0,060	420,8	627,2	714,9	0,757*
Profitability, %	40,7	26,1	-1,5	9,7	27,9

* In denominated terms

sites on a small scale and new railway construction. The Amur-Yakutskaya highway from Berkakit to Yakutsk (500 km), the line from Labytnanga to Bovanenkovo ​​on the Yamal Peninsula, etc. are being built. A program has been developed for the construction of a high-speed highway St. Petersburg-Moscow parallel to the existing line. A lot of work is being done on the reconstruction and construction of railway stations, the creation of branded transport service centers for cargo owners, an increase in the number of branded passenger trains, the development of suburban transportation, the introduction of double-decker passenger cars, etc.

Measures taken by the state to improve the economy will help stabilize traffic volumes and improve the performance of Russian railways. This will also be facilitated by closer interaction between the roads of the CIS countries, which have been developing for many decades as a single infrastructure complex. At present, the Council for Railway Transport of the CIS is actively working on the integration of the railways of the former USSR.

Land transport.

Railway transport- a type of transport that transports goods on rail tracks in wagons (trains) using locomotive traction. railway track - a complex of structures and devices that form a road with a guide rail track for the movement of rolling stock of railway transport. The main elements of the railway track: superstructure, subgrade, engineering structures (bridges, tunnels ...).

Rail transport refers to the inland mode of transport. Serving transportation in the states of any region, it acquires the significance of an international mode of transport. Railways do not always form single system due to different track widths. In the Russian Federation, the gauge corresponds to the Western European one, but is wider than the Eastern European one.

Advantages railway transport: high throughput and carrying capacity; reliability of work due to independence from climatic conditions (exception - breakage of electrical wires during natural disasters); the possibility of building communication lines on any land and water territory in the presence of ferries; direct connection with industrial and agricultural enterprises of any sectors of the economy (individual sectors have their own access roads for access to the main network); mass transportation combined with low cost and a fairly high speed of delivery; a shorter route compared to natural water transport routes.

Flaws railway transport: "binding" to the track; high initial cost of fixed assets (a wagon is more expensive than a car, but cheaper than an air or sea vessel); high metal consumption, labor intensity, low labor productivity.

The technology of rail transport is complex. This is due to the binding to the railway track. The basis of the technology of work is the theory of schedules (traffic schedule); plan for the formation of trains in the directions of movement; an agreed plan for the formation of trains on the main line with a schedule for the operation of access roads of enterprises that have a connection with the main railway network.

Principles of operation of railways:

1. another train cannot enter the busy haul (to increase the throughput, the hauls are divided into sections);

2. movement is carried out only by trains (passenger, freight, postal, mixed), which are reorganized along the route of movement;

3. goods move between marshalling yards where trains are re-formed;

4. management of the transport process is carried out through the dispatch center;

5. the locomotive crew is changed after 100 - 120 km (water intake is required after 600 - 800 km); modern traction allows you to change the crew after 200 - 300 km, and the locomotive - after 1000 km;

6. transportation takes place at different gauges;

7. shipments of goods - carloads, small batches, train or block trains (typical for the transportation of bulk cargoes).

The rolling stock of railway transport includes: locomotives (freight, shunting, commuter and subway electric trains) and wagons (freight, passenger, special, specialized by type of cargo).

The emergence and development of railway transport dates back to the first half of the 19th century. and is associated with the rapid growth of the capitalist mode of production. The birthplace of this type of transport is Great Britain.

The first public railway in Russia with a length of only 26 km St. Petersburg - Tsarskoye Selo - Pavlovsk was put into operation in 1837 and had a purely demonstration value. Three years earlier, the factory railway in Nizhny Tagil began to operate. Russia was 10-12 years late in the organization of railway communication in comparison with the developed countries of that time.

The full-scale beginning of the formation of the domestic railway network dates back to 1851. Then the two-track railway line St. Petersburg - Moscow was put into operation. Subsequently, the construction of highways in radial directions from Moscow (to Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov) began. And also from grain regions to sea export ports of the Baltic and Black Seas. Railway construction in Russia acquired a particularly large scale in the late XIX - early XX century. In the pre-revolutionary period, the main "backbone" of the country's modern railway network was formed. By this time, the Trans-Siberian Railway (Moscow - Vladivostok) and railways connecting Moscow with the Caucasus and Central Asia. The highway St. Petersburg - Warsaw - Berlin connected the capital of Russia with the railway network of Western Europe. Highways to Odessa and Murmansk gave St. Petersburg access to the Black and Barents Seas.

During the Soviet period, the main focus was not on the construction of new railways, but on the reconstruction and increase in the capacity of the busiest existing highways. This approach was entirely justified. The concentration of the main cargo and passenger traffic on relatively few highways made it possible to carry out an appropriate concentration of capital investments in their reconstruction and technical re-equipment. The result is a significant reduction in unit costs for the transportation of goods and passengers.

By the end of the 80s. railroads Soviet Union were the busiest in the world. They accounted for about half of the world's rail freight traffic. Moreover, the roads of Russia were distinguished by the most intensive movement of trains. On the territory of our country is the busiest highway in the world - the Trans-Siberian. The maximum freight traffic on it is confined to the section Novosibirsk - Omsk, where in both directions in the pre-crisis 1990 more than 130 million tons of cargo were transported.

The high intensity of traffic on Russian railways has made it possible to carry out such expensive and capital-intensive types of reconstruction as the conversion of railway transport to electric traction.

New railways were built mainly in the newly developed regions of Siberia, the Far East and the European North. To unload the Trans-Siberian, its “understudies” were built - the South Siberian Railway (Abakan - Novokuznetsk - Barnaul - Pavlodar - Tselinograd - Magnitogorsk) and the Central Siberian (Kamen-on-Obi - Kokchetav - Kustanai - Chelyabinsk). A significant part of these roads falls on Kazakhstan. Therefore, today they have interstate significance. Along with internal Russian ties, they play an important role in the international territorial division of labor between Russia and Kazakhstan. Railways were also built to develop the fuel and energy resources of the European (Vorkuta - Konosha) and West Siberian North (Tyumen - Surgut - Urengoy). The most significant road in the territory of Eastern Siberia and the Far East is also the northern "understudy" of the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Baikal-Amur Mainline (Taishet - Ust-Kut - Severobaikalsk - Tynda - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan). The Small BAM was built - the BAM - Tynda - Berkakit highway. This route gave the South Yakut TPK access to the Trans-Siberian. In the future, it was planned to extend the Small BAM to Yakutsk and further through Susuman to Magadan in order to provide Russia's third railway access to the Pacific Ocean. There are projects to connect the "island" Dudinka-Norilsk-Talnakh railway with the main Russian railway network by extending the Tyumen-Surgut-Urengoi line to Dudinka with a bridge across the Yenisei. However, the implementation of all these projects requires large capital investments.

To characterize the operation of railway transport on present stage development, not quantitative, but qualitative indicators, in particular, electrification, are becoming increasingly important. In terms of the length of electrified railways, Russia occupies the first place in the world (75.3 thousand km), followed by Germany, France, Italy, India and China. In terms of the length of railways, Russia occupies the 2nd place - 124 thousand km. However, in terms of network density, our country is one of the last places. The railway network is especially rare in Siberia, the Far East and the European North. Although today Russia holds the lead in terms of the total freight turnover of railway transport, both the railway network and vehicles are physically worn out to a large extent and require immediate renewal.

This state of railway transport and railways is the result of a systematic reduction in capital investments in the industry, as well as the practical cessation of the supply of rolling stock and various equipment from the former Soviet republics and countries of people's democracy. Russia, with its vast expanses and large volumes of bulk cargo transportation over long distances, urgently needs well-developed rail transport (high-speed lines with large capacity and modern rolling stock).

The Government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution on the establishment of Russian Railways, the largest transport company, which began its economic activities on October 1, 2003. Today, the reform of railway transport is recognized as one of the most successfully developing reforms in the economic sphere. As a result of the implementation of the program of structural reform of railway transport, a breakthrough in the field of passenger transportation was achieved - passenger turnover increased. Already in the first year of the company's operation, the quality of freight transportation was improved: the speed of delivery of goods increased by 6%, the share of shipments of goods delivered just in time exceeded 90%.

The transportation of goods by Russian railways has always been dominated by such bulk cargo as timber and timber, agricultural cargo and, to a large extent, grain and coal. Later - oil and oil products, raw materials, ferrous metal ores and metals, mineral building materials. A much smaller share was made up of manufacturing products. And today this picture has changed little. Nevertheless, over the past 2-3 decades, a very positive trend has emerged - a gradual (very slow) increase in the share of manufacturing products in the total volume of cargo turnover and a decrease in the share of other types of cargo.

The geography of cargo transportation is dominated by cargo flows of fuel and raw materials from Siberia in the western direction (in European part Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, as well as the countries of Eastern and Western Europe). The flow of raw materials from the European North to the central and southern regions of Russia is also great.

There is a project of an underwater tunnel connecting the Russian Federation with the United States, but so far it has no basis.

In passenger traffic, the Trans-Siberian Railway in its European part, the Moscow-St. Petersburg road, as well as other radial highways diverging from Moscow are especially busy.

Suburban passenger traffic is most developed in the vicinity of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large Russian cities.

The seven largest cities in Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Novosibirsk - have subways. Subways are also being built in Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa. In Volgograd, there is a metrotram - an underground high-speed tram system. Metrotram, despite the tram rolling stock, is actually considered a subway. The total length of Russian metro lines is about 453.0 km, with 280 stations. Subways carry over 4.2 billion passengers annually. This is almost twice the passenger traffic of the entire Russian railway network. Russia ranks third among the countries of the world in terms of the number of cities with operating subways and fourth in terms of the total length of the network. The leading place among Russian subways is occupied by Moscow.

In 1992, the construction of Russia's first high-speed railroad Moscow - St. Petersburg began. Thus, the first high-speed passenger railway line in Russia - VSZhM-1 - a passenger line Moscow - St. Petersburg for the circulation of specialized high-speed trains.

On December 18, 2009, the regular movement of the Sapsan train between Moscow and St. Petersburg began according to the schedule. The initial travel time between the two capitals was 3 hours and 45 minutes. In the future, it was planned to reduce travel time. However, on the contrary, it was increased, and now varies from 3 hours 55 minutes to 4 hours 45 minutes.

The Sapsan high-speed train (Velaro RUS) is a joint project of Russian Railways and Siemens. The first train in Russia was formed from 10 cars. On the way, it develops a speed of up to 250 km / h. At the same time, in tests, it accelerated to 281 km / h. The Sapsan carriages have a two-class layout - tourist and business class. A number of problems in the operation of the train arise due to the fact that high-speed traffic is organized along the same railway lines as conventional trains. In this regard, a decision was made to build Russia's first specialized high-speed railway Moscow - St. Petersburg. Trains will be able to run at speeds up to 400 km/h along the new route. Completion of construction is scheduled for 2017. Russian Railways also plans to issue a through ticket for passengers of Sapsan (Moscow - St. Petersburg) and Allegro (St. Petersburg - Helsinki) - travel on both trains will be carried out on one ticket.

The second VSZhM of Russia - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. The travel time on the route is 3 hours 55 minutes, with a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Along the way, the train makes two-minute stops in Vladimir, as well as in Dzerzhinsk. The first flight was made on July 30, 2010. The traffic intensity is two pairs per day - one pair goes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and back through the Kursky railway station in Moscow. Since September 6, 2010, the second pair has been running from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod from the Kursk railway station and back. The total travel time is 7 hours 55 minutes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and 3 hours 55 minutes from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.

At present, there are projects for the construction of new railway lines, where Sapsan trains will be operated: 1) Moscow-Kazan line; 2) line Moscow - Yaroslavl.