The Belarusian Railways is connected to the railways of neighboring countries: Latvia (Latvijas dzelzceļš), Lithuania (Lietuvos Geležinkeliai), Poland (Polskie Koleje Państwowe), Russia (Moscow and Oktyabrskaya Railways Russian Railways) and Ukraine (South-Western and Lviv Railways UZ).
Road branches
Directions of commuter trains of the Minsk branch
Freight transport format
Current state
Freight transportation
According to the former head of the Belarusian Railways, Anatoly Sivak, as of January 1, 2012, the fleet of passenger cars on the Belarusian railway consisted of 1,691 units. The average service life of passenger cars is about 23 years. The wear and tear of the passenger car fleet is about 56%. As for the provision of freight transportation, the inventory of the Belarusian Railway currently includes 28,643 freight cars, of which 4,617 are covered cars, 2,914 platforms, 6,914 gondola cars, 7,027 tank cars and 7,171 other cars. The depreciation of the fleet is 58.3%.
BZhD is characterized by a number of problems, one of which is the high depreciation of fixed assets - wear is 64.7%, 42% of cars are used with an expired service life. The investment deficit in Belarusian Railways was [ When?] 461 billion Belarusian rubles in 2000 (approximately $163.5 million). Until 2009, the lack of investment was covered by attracting bank credit resources. In 2009, Belarusian Railways needs to return 233 billion Belarusian rubles (approximately $82.5 million) to the banks.
Since the beginning of 2012, the Belarusian Railway has purchased 2,673 freight cars. Including, 1,470 gondola cars, 676 tank cars, 411 hopper-cement cars and 116 covered cars were purchased. Rolling stock is delivered to the highway in accordance with concluded contracts in accordance with approved delivery schedules. In total, in 2012 the road plans to purchase 3,746 freight cars: 2,080 gondola cars, 1,000 tank cars, 550 cement hopper cars and 116 box cars. Renewal of rolling stock is one of the most important investment projects of the Belarusian Railway, which is carrying out targeted work in this direction. According to the State Program for the Development of Railway Transport of Belarus, by the end of 2015 the Belarusian Railway will purchase a total of 12.5 thousand units of new rolling stock.
Also in 2016, railway freight turnover amounted to 41.1 billion ton-kilometers (32.7% of the total freight turnover of all types of transport), with a total of 126.8 million tons of cargo transported. Thus, the share of railway transport in the structure of cargo transportation by all modes of transport was 30.4%. The volume of traffic decreased compared to the previous year. In 2015, 80.3 million tons of cargo were loaded onto railway transport, of which 22.5 million tons were oil and petroleum products, 20.1 million tons were construction materials, 13.3 million tons were chemical and mineral fertilizers, 6.6 million tons - timber cargo, 3.6 million tons - cement, 2.1 million tons - ferrous metals, 1.2 million tons - grain and grinding products, 10.9 million tons - other cargo.
In general, for 2016, revenue amounted to 357.28 million Belarusian rubles (-1.2% compared to 2015), and the net profit of the association decreased by 68.05% to 6.27 million rubles (about 3 million . US dollars at the then exchange rate). The total profit amounted to 9.1 million rubles (taking into account the revaluation of long-term assets that are not included in net profit). As of December 31, 2016, the association’s liabilities for leasing payments amounted to 244.28 million rubles, and the total volume of long-term loans and borrowings amounted to 806.8 million rubles.
Passenger transportation
In 2015, the Belarusian Railways transported 87.1 million passengers, including 4 million international passengers (1.7 million imports, 1.7 million exports, 0.6 million transit), 12.4 million interregional and regional business class lines, 67.4 million regional economy class lines and 3.3 million city lines. Passenger turnover amounted to 7117 million passenger-km - 1124 million on international routes, 3032 million on interregional and regional business class lines, 2962 million on regional economy class lines (including 73 million on city lines).
For the entire 2016, the Belarusian Railways transported about 82 million people (4.1% of the total number of passengers transported by all types of transport in the republic): Including 64.1 million people in regional economy class traffic (78.3% of the total volume of passenger transportation by rail), 10.4 million people (12.7%) in interregional traffic, and 3.8 million passengers (4.7%) in international traffic. Traffic volumes decreased compared to the previous year (Excluding international routes).
| Passengers transported (millions): | Including regional economy class and city lines (millions): |
I have several thousand old and antique maps in my archive. The year is not always indicated on these maps. In such cases, how can you find out when the card was printed? Railways can help with this: knowing the time when certain lines were laid, you can significantly narrow down the possible dating options for the map. Or another case: the map is a reprint of an earlier one (in the twenties and thirties, maps of the Red Army were often reprints of old tsarist “layouts”), and we do not yet see the railway on it, although it seems like there should have been one long ago. In this case, we can also estimate: what year was the area drawn for?
You can find several maps of the history of the Belarusian Railway on the Internet and in books, but all of them did not suit me, so I drew my own.
The first such map that I came across was found on the BZD website itself (it is still there). For a long time, besides her, I had no other person. For some time, this scheme was on the entire BZD website - because supposedly “it was technically impossible to save the card”!
Then comrade tomkad I posted another card in my post. He claims that it was taken from the national atlas of Belarus, but I looked through the entire Atlas and did not find this diagram there. On this map, the dates of introduction of some areas do not coincide with the dates on the first diagram.
Later, another map was found - Belarus in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Click - it will open in a new window in full size (4.039x2.602 pixels):
Not all the pieces of iron are drawn on it, but there is, for example, the Suvalka ring.
In the spring, I bought the book “The Railway of Belarus” at an auction, and there is a diagram there that is similar to the very first one, but with some differences.
On Wikipedia there was an animated gif diagram of the opening of sections, but without indicating the key points (by clicking - in full size: 750x670 pixels, 1.62 MB):
Thus, I already had five schemes that contradicted each other in many ways.
Well, I had to start drawing up the diagram myself. First, I compiled a chronological table of the discovery of new iron sections on the territory of Belarus with detailed explanations. And without them it would have been incomprehensible: some of the lines were closed/dismantled/exploded, some were converted to broad gauge, etc. And although a lot of work was done and very useful, it was still not very convenient to date ancient maps using such a scheme. So I started drawing a diagram.
At first I thought of taking an existing map of the Belarusian Railways and simply signing the dates, but then I realized that this was inconvenient: in order to reflect all the necessary stations, the map would have to be very large. So I had to draw the diagram myself. I took a convenient backing with areas and started drawing. Almost all directions and locations of stations coincide with reality, with a few exceptions (for example, Ivatsevichi is strongly shifted due to the straightness of the lines). Closed and dismantled sections are marked, as well as the largest stations with only freight traffic. It is probably necessary to make an addition to the Volkovysk-Cheremkha section: I don’t know for sure yet whether the section on the border has been dismantled.
Click to open it in full size (1.537x1.218 pixels, 587 KB).
I will listen with attention to your questions, suggestions and additions. Please note in advance that without the chronological table mentioned above, the map may cause conflicting thoughts in the user. I will provide all explanations.
P.S. Well, BZD and personally the deputy head of the Center for Scientific and Technical Information of the BZD Alexander Kazachok, would you like to buy a diagram from me for your website?
Map from the Belcartography website - just for illustration. All the most important things are inside the recording!
P.S. Release Candidate - list of additions and fixes.
To correct:
*Vitebsk - Smolensk: 1868 (October), not 1867
*Nevel - Vitebsk: 1904 (August)
Add:
*Starushki - Urechye: 1940-1944 (?) On the maps of the Red Army 1940 it is shown as a wide gauge Starushki - Sovkhoz Sosny (modern Sosny village) with railway branches: Vetchin - Malye Gorodyatichi (shortly after the Tsartova ditch in the Kadische tract is shown dismantled) and Sosny - Collective Farm named after BVO (modern village Kommuna) and then almost to the village. Nezhin.
*Lipa - Sinyavka - Budy, Sinyavka - Gantsevichi: 1916-1917, dismantled after the 1930s, (eastern bypass of Baranovichi).
*Godutishki - Didzhyasalis.
I doubt whether to add the Baranovichi pass system. UZD (sort of Baranovichi ring).
And now here are some more questions for you. I studied an interesting map of the railways of Belarus, a German one from 1941, and a similar one from 1944. There I found some lines that I don’t know anything about yet:
*Gorodok - Privalni (village NE of Gorodok, approximately 20 km) - shown as a broad gauge.
*Demekhi - Gorval (also like a wide one).
*Krasny Brod - Glusk (another wide one)
Can you tell me what they are?
For many residents of Belarus, rail transport is one of the most comfortable, reliable and affordable travel options. The history of the Belarusian Railway began more than 150 years ago - in 1862, when train traffic was opened on the Grodno-Porechye section.
Today BZD occupies a leading position in the national transport services market. Every year, railway transport in Belarus transports more than 140 million tons of cargo and 90 million passengers, providing over 60% of the country's total freight turnover and 30% of passenger turnover.
Structure of the Belarusian Railway
The Belarusian Railway includes 29 organizations, each of which has the status of a legal entity; 7 separate structural divisions (branches); as well as 3 representative offices abroad - in Russia, Kazakhstan and Poland. In total, over 79,000 people work at the Belarusian Railways. Among them are representatives of about 500 professions. Railway workers honor their traditions - about 400 labor dynasties work on the railway.
The Belarusian Railway has 572 passenger stopping points and 320 passenger stations, 19 large stations, including 4 extra-curricular ones. On average, more than 200 thousand people are transported by rail per day.
The organization of cargo transportation is provided by 370 stations: 9 of them are sorting stations and 27 are cargo stations. The average daily loading volume exceeds 200,000 tons.
Passenger transportation
« Belarusian Chygunka" is a world-famous brand. Today, passenger rail service connects Belarus with Paris, Nice, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest, Vienna, as well as the capitals and administrative centers of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Kazakhstan.
In communication with the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Kazakhstan, up to 34 pairs of trains of permanent circulation of the Belarusian Railways run. Including the Belarusian Railways, it forms 6 international branded trains, of which 5 are in communication with the Russian Federation and 1 with the capital of Ukraine.
In recent years, the system of passenger rail transportation in Belarus has changed significantly. Today, passenger transportation by public rail transport is carried out in the following types of communications:
- urban (city lines);
- regional (regional lines);
- interregional (interregional lines);
- international (international lines);
- commercial (commercial lines).
City lines represent the transportation of passengers within the city of Minsk, the regional center and beyond, but not further than stations (stopping points) located in satellite cities. Today, modern 4-car electric trains on city lines connect Minsk with three satellite cities: Zaslavl, Rudensky and Smolevichi.
Are in constant demand among passengers regional business class trains. On November 19, 2011, regular service was opened on the Minsk-Baranovichi-Minsk and Baranovichi-Brest-Baranovichi routes, and a month and a half later, regional business class trains began running on the Minsk-Orsha-Minsk route. The work carried out to modernize the infrastructure and electrify the Osipovichi-Bobruisk section made it possible, starting from April 6, 2013, to carry out transportation by regional business class trains between Minsk and Bobruisk.
Since May 2013, new train routes of regional business class lines have been introduced on the sections Orsha-Krichev-Kommunary, Kommunary-Mogilev; in September 2013 - on the Minsk-Zhlobin section; in 2014 - on the Minsk-Molodechno section.
Regional economy lines provide transport services to the segment of passengers not covered by business class lines, and are the most popular type of transportation.
Interregional lines represent the transportation of passengers between Minsk and regional centers, as well as between the regional centers of the republic themselves. Depending on the speed of delivery to the destination and the number of stops along the route, interregional lines are divided into business and economy class.
The movement of interregional business class trains is carried out on routes connecting the capital with Brest, Gomel and Vitebsk.
International lines- transportation between the Republic of Belarus and other states. They provide passenger service between the city of Minsk, regional centers of the republic and capitals, as well as individual regions of other states.
The Belarusian Railway pays great attention to improving the quality of passenger service and updating rolling stock. As part of the State Program for the Development of Railway Transport of the Republic of Belarus for 2011-2015, the Belarusian Railways acquired 7 passenger diesel locomotives; 16 electric trains produced by the Swiss company Stadler Bussnang AG; 9 diesel trains of various compositions developed by the Polish company PESA Bydgoszсz JSC.
Procedure for purchasing travel documents
Ticket sales on the Belarusian Railway are fully automated and carried out through the Express-3 automated control system.
To sell travel documents for trains of regional economy class lines and city lines using bank payment cards, self-service payment and reference terminals have been installed.
In February 2011, a system for selling travel documents of the Belarusian Railway on the website was put into operation www.poezd.rw.by.
Electronic registration has been introduced when purchasing tickets via the Internet, which allows the passenger to travel on the train in accordance with the order paid via the Internet without issuing a travel document at the ticket office.
Advantages of transit
The favorable geopolitical location of the Belarusian Railway at the crossroads of the II and IX pan-European transport corridors, at the junction of the 1435 mm and 1520 mm gauges, determines its role as the most important connecting link between the countries of Europe and Asia. Today, the priority activity of the Belarusian Railways is the development of transit transportation. The share of transit in the total volume of freight traffic along the Belarusian highway is about 30%.
A number of stable railway routes for transit freight flows have been formed in Belarus. First of all, this is the transportation of goods to the ports of Latvia along the Zaolsha-Bigosovo route, as well as in communication with the Kaliningrad region and Lithuania. Transportation to and from the European Union countries is important within the framework of the Pan-European Transport Corridor No. II, as well as between the countries of the Baltic and Black Seas within the framework of the Pan-European Transport Corridor No. IX.
The transfer of cargo to the Belarusian Railway in the East-West-East connection is carried out at three border crossings: Brest-Terespol, Bruzgi-Kuznitsa Bialystotskaya and Svisloch-Siemyanuvka. The main capacities of the transshipment and warehouse infrastructure are concentrated on the border with Poland; there is significant potential for organizing the transshipment of bulk cargo. The cargo terminals provide a full range of services for the processing and storage of cargo of various types.
The Belarusian Railway is ready to provide reliable transport links between China and European countries, to become the optimal transport and logistics link in the implementation of large-scale projects in the field of economics and transport logistics.
Over the past years, the number of regular freight container trains running between China and Western Europe has been steadily growing. Today the following trains regularly run on the Belarusian Railway:
- China - Poland (Chengdu-Lodz);
- China - Germany (Chengzhou - Hamburg);
- "New Silk Road" China - Germany (Chongqing-Duisburg);
- "BMW" Germany - China (Leipzig - Shenyang);
- Ford Germany - China (Duisburg - Chongqing);
- "Saule" Lithuania - China;
- China - Germany (Wuhan - Hamburg);
- China - Spain (Yiwu - Madrid).
Infrastructure modernization
The strategic goal of the Belarusian Railway is to modernize its infrastructure. One of the most important projects in this area is the electrification of railway lines.
Today, railway lines within the II Pan-European Transport Corridor are fully electrified.
A large-scale investment project is being implemented to electrify the Gomel-Zhlobin-Osipovichi and Zhlobin-Kalinkovichi sections of the IX Pan-European Transport Corridor. In September 2013, the first stage of this project was implemented - the Zhlobin-Osipovichi section was opened.
After completion of the electrification of the Zhlobin-Gomel section, the operational length of the electrified sections of the Belarusian Railway will be 1091.2 km or 19.5% of the total length of the highway.
In September 2015, the Belarusian Railway began electrification of the Molodechno-Gudogai-state border section.
Much attention is paid to the development of freight infrastructure. In particular, in 2015, the Belarusian Railways completed the modernization of the Kolyadichi City Freight Station, which is part of the Minsk Transport and Logistics Center, as a result of which its storage and cargo processing capacity was significantly increased. Today, the Kolyadichi station is the most important link in the organization of export-import freight transportation on the Belarusian Railway, including container transportation. At the Kolyadichi station, cargo is processed and transshipped to the regions of Belarus, as well as to the CIS countries, the Baltics and abroad using the capabilities of rail and road transport.
Cooperation with foreign countries
The Belarusian Railway actively cooperates with the railway administrations of the CIS countries, the Baltic countries, the European Union and far abroad, and also participates in the activities of such international transport organizations as:
- Commonwealth Rail Transport Council;
- Organization of cooperation between railways;
- International Union of Railways;
- Coordination conference on planning and implementation of transportation in international passenger traffic
- International Association “Coordination Council for Trans-Siberian Transportation”.
Representative offices of the Belarusian Railway abroad:
- in the Russian Federation
Russia, 125047, Moscow, pl. Tverskoy Zastava, 5a, office 219,
Tel./fax (+7 499) 262 94 27,
[email protected]
- in the Republic of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, 010000, Astana, st. D. Kunaeva, 6,
Tel. (+7 7172) 60 04 99, fax (+7 7172) 60 04 98,
[email protected]
- in the Republic of Poland
Republic of Poland, PL 00-681 Warsaw, ul. Hoza 63/67,
Phone: tel./fax (+48 22) 47 44 080, tel. (+48 22) 47 44 822
[email protected]
The Belarusian railway system is operated by the state association BZD. It reports to the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Belarus. Passenger transportation has a convenient format: the country has regional, interregional, city and international routes. The railways of Belarus are coordinated by the Belarusian Railways Department. Information about routes and tickets is presented on the official website of the company rw.by.
Main station
In total, there are 320 stations and 21 terminals in the country. The main railway station of the country is located in Minsk, on Station Square. It connects the capital with populated areas of Belarus and with cities of neighboring countries (Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia). Minsk Station is the gateway to Belarus. This is the Minsk Passenger station, which is equipped with comfortable waiting rooms, benches and canopies.
Characteristics of BJD
BZD is characterized by deterioration of the rolling stock. Many of the carriages have long since expired. The Belarusian railway uses a 1520 mm gauge. The railway system handles a significant portion of passenger and freight traffic. It is a leader in the state freight transportation industry. The country's railway network is highly dense. However, its quality leaves much to be desired. Only 16% of Belarusian railways have been electrified. Thanks to its geographical location, the country acts as a link between the West and the East. The most important transport corridors pass through the territory of this state. Therefore, the sphere of railway transport in Belarus is of great international importance.
Today the rolling stock is in a state of renewal. Experts are eager to move towards high-speed traffic. Particular attention is paid to such routes as Minsk - Brest, Moscow - Minsk. Trains are already operating on these lines and travel at a speed of 140 km/h. The Belarusian Railway has great potential, which makes it possible to organize high-quality transportation. The most important link in the state's railway system is the Minsk branch, which is located at the intersection of the main transport routes. Its lines carry a heavy load, providing over 44% of passenger traffic within the country. The Minsk branch services more than 1000 km of tracks. This division aims to improve the quality of work by applying innovative approaches. The Minsk branch is committed to updating its cars and locomotives. In recent years, management has put into operation 28 new carriages for passengers.
