photo: Arkady Shapovalov/Russian Railways press service
WE HAVE KEPT OUR ABILITY TO REBOUND
– Oleg Valentinovich, how do you feel on the eve of Railway Workers’ Day? How would you assess where the company stands, and what has been achieved recently?
– These are extremely turbulent times. Shifting freight flows, a wholesale reorientation of logistics, a high key rate, sanctions, labor shortages — a few years ago such a combination of factors would have been hard to imagine. I’ll be frank: no strategy came anywhere close to describing scenarios like these. There were moments when things were very hard going indeed. But railway workers reacted quickly to the changes and kept the situation firmly in hand. Yes, we had to transform and tighten our belts, but the main thing is that we fully preserved our ability to recover along with the economy.
“RUSSIA IS GATHERING HER STRENGTH”
In the mid-19th century, during yet another difficult period of confrontation between our country and its Western adversaries, the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, coined his famous formula: “La Russie se recueille” — “Russia is gathering her strength.” The same is true of us today: we are concentrating on mobilizing our own strengths, acting as pragmatically as we can and relying on ourselves, all the while staying in constant contact with the Ministry of Transport and the Russian Government.
I will never tire of repeating it: every crisis forces us to become better, faster and more efficient, forces us to keep reassessing ourselves, our capabilities and the way we work with shippers and passengers. Our motto is the same in any era: endure everything, carry everyone.
photo: Russian Railways press service
RAILWAY WORKERS HAVE A PHENOMENAL RESERVE OF STRENGTH
From my very first days at Russian Railways I have always said that ours is a workforce with a powerful sense of responsibility and pride in the job it does. For a railway worker, heroism is part of the genetic code. That is the absolute truth — and it never stops astonishing me. Railway workers have a phenomenal reserve of strength. We are ready to serve our country and our people. I see it every day in the work of my colleagues across the country, and on my trips, whenever I meet the people at our facilities.
photo: Sergey Gusev/Russian Railways press service
– Despite the objective difficulties in the economy, can employees rest easy about the company’s future?
– The company is stable and firmly under control. We closed last year with a net profit of 14 billion rubles and revenue growth. We work continuously on labor productivity, internal efficiency and financial resilience. Russian Railways has been doing this enormous job since 2011 and has achieved a significant result thanks to the efforts of every employee — from the most remote track section to head office on Basmannaya.
Today we are continuing to improve and transform what we do across every area: rolling out new technology, cutting costs, raising the reliability of our operations, streamlining the management structure — and at the same time doing everything possible to retain the people directly engaged in running trains.
Our performance management system is the company’s principal asset and the workforce’s shield against any factor whatsoever.
Since 2019, thanks to the Consolidated Operational Efficiency Program we adopted, we have saved more than 300 billion rubles. Those funds became a kind of safety cushion for us and underpinned our stability in the toughest of times. I say this with full responsibility: few can match us here. We know how to manage efficiency. And we are certainly ready to roll our experience out more widely and share what we have developed with other organizations.
The single clearest measure of our resilience is the Collective Agreement. Despite the objective funding constraints, in signing the new agreement we kept every existing guarantee, benefit and support program in place, indexed all forms of financial assistance, and added support for those taking part in the special military operation. An employee has to feel protected — that is the key thing.
WORK ON THE EASTERN OPERATING DOMAIN WILL CONTINUE
– We would very much like our readers to hear some concrete facts and figures from the man in charge. How is the pivot to the East progressing?
– Let’s look at the numbers. Since 2021, freight traffic with China across all routes has doubled, and over 10 years it has grown more than three and a half times. Last year we moved 186 million tons of freight in the China direction. This year we expect to pass the 190 million ton mark.
We have delivered on the President’s instruction on the Eastern Operating Domain: carrying capacity has reached 180 million tons. That is a threshold it took us more than 10 years to cross.
And how has that capacity been put to work? Last year we saw eastbound fertilizer traffic grow by 62%, containers by 13%, and oil and petroleum products by 4.3%. In other words, it is not only coal that moves, although coal still accounts for the most visible share of total volumes.
By our estimates, the demand potential is there and will keep growing. Which means construction in the East will go on. Despite the objective difficulties, we are electrifying the Volochayevka–Komsomolsk-on-Amur section, the easternmost link between the Trans-Siberian and the BAM, 350 km long. This is the groundwork we are laying for the future.
Ultimately we plan to energize the section from Komsomolsk to Sovetskaya Gavan as well. An electric locomotive is more efficient and more reliable than a diesel, and electrification will let us move more freight. This is the next step up in quality for the BAM.
THE GOAL IS OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY AND GROWTH IN LOADINGS
– What is the main operational objective this year?
– Our principal goal is operational efficiency and growth in loading volumes. It is a difficult task, and external factors weigh heavily on it. Hitting the planned results in these conditions is very hard. At the same time, it is within our power to reduce the impact of those factors that fall within Russian Railways’ remit; we have to fight for every ton of freight and work with shippers to find balanced solutions that will ultimately benefit our country’s economy.
The picture in passenger services is much the same. We aim to offer people rail tourism routes right across the country. This year our Year of the Passenger coincides with the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia. To my mind, the best synergy between the two is precisely the tourist train. This segment is growing by double digits every year! I am deeply grateful to everyone who takes part in creating and running these excellent projects.
– September brings another State Duma election. What would you say to the workforce in the run-up to it?
– We work very closely, on an almost daily basis, with the parliamentary majority party, United Russia. Our colleagues there listen to us, help on the legislative side and back our proposals for developing the railways. From the company’s founding year of 2003 to this day, every law under which Russian Railways lives and grows has been passed with United Russia’s support. I have great respect for everyone’s right to make their own choice and hold their own opinion. But my appeal is this: be practical. Judge by real achievements, not by promises. Weigh up the benefit to yourself, to your team, to your family and those close to you. Could another team really deliver in the extremely difficult conditions we face today, and how much time and resource would it take them simply to get up to speed? Is that what our country needs most right now?
Since 2022 our country has been defending itself and conducting the special military operation. Many of our fellow railway workers have taken up arms and gone to the front. I want very much for every one of them to come home, to their families and to peacetime life on the railway. But until this fight is over, we will support them with everything we have.
– The traditional question: what would you like to say to the workforce on the eve of the holiday, Railway Workers’ Day?
– Here is the main thing I want to say: Russian Railways today is resilient and continues to develop in conditions that would have broken many companies. This is a result we have achieved together. Behind every one of those achievements stands a particular person, a particular shift, a particular working day.
Railway workers are a special breed. I am reminded of it constantly when I see that at the hardest moment, whatever the failure or the weather, people simply turn out and do what has to be done — without a word, without waiting for anyone’s recognition. Railway character is built over decades and passed down from generation to generation, along with the desire to serve one’s country.
I understand that things are not easy right now and that new challenges keep coming. But I am absolutely certain we will cope, just as we have coped with everything else. And everyone’s work will be given the recognition it deserves. This is not a holiday promise — it is a commitment. Honor and glory to the railway workers of Russia. Happy Railway Workers’ Day!
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