Russia plans reserve fleet of railway wagons for 'state tasks'

Globaltrans Investment

25/03/2022 12:44

March 25 (Reuters) - Russia plans to establish a reserve
fleet of railway wagons for  "state tasks", according to a
letter seen by Reuters, as state needs expand because of its
military operation in Ukraine.
    Valentina Matviyenko, chair of the upper house of parliament
and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said this week
that, as Russia now had a "mobilisation economy", private rail
firms should support state interests and allow Russian Railways
to use their wagons.
    The letter, dated March 22, says the reserve railcars would
enable "transportation of socially significant cargoes" and asks
Russian Railways, the federal anti-monopoly service, the
ministry of transport and the main industry association to
respond by April 10. None of these responded to a Reuters
request for comment.
    State monopoly Russian Railways controls tracks and
infrastructure, but the more than 1.1 million rail wagons in
Russia are majority-owned by private firms including Freight
One, Globaltrans  GLTRq.L , Transcontainer  TRCN.MM  and the
Russian Railways subsidiary, Federal Freight.
    Matviyenko said she planned to ask the Security Council -
which is chaired by Putin and advises him on policy including
the use of Russian military forces abroad - to look into private
rail operators.
    The head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov, told Security
Council members on Tuesday that the state operator should be
given about 10% of the existing fleet to use.
    Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb.
24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern
neighbour’s military capabilities and root out people it called
dangerous nationalists. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VS08N
    Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West
has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force
it to withdraw its forces.

 (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Nick Macfie)