Transport infrastructure plays a primary role in strengthening and maintaining the state economy. Thanks to the development of railway transport in Russia, which transports large-sized and multi-ton cargo, the full functioning of all sectors of the national economy, supplying regions and industrial enterprises is ensured. Railway transport is of great importance for ensuring the economic security and integrity of the country.

Russian Railways

Today, Russian Railways is a comprehensive transport system with many thousands of passenger traffic and cargo turnover. Actual indicators of technical equipment indicate real prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia. It can be briefly described using the following data:

operational length - more than 90 thousand km;
the total length of double-track lines is more than 40 thousand km;
electrified lines - about 40 thousand km;
the length of the main routes is 126.3 thousand km.

The rolling stock and domestic railway infrastructure make it possible to carry out freight transportation on trains weighing 10-12 thousand tons.

The railway transport network occupies a leading position among all modes of transport. Despite the fact that bus and air services have been intensively developing over the past decades, Russian Railways remains the main instrument for ensuring the massive movement of goods and passengers both within the country and abroad.

The first railway tracks

The history of the development of railway transport in Russia dates back to the middle of the 16th century. The first analogues of modern rail tracks arose in the territory of stone and sand quarries, in mining excavations and coal mines. At that time, the road consisted of long tracks made of wooden beams. Along these routes, horses could carry heavier loads than on regular country roads. The beams quickly wore out, causing the carts to often go off track. In order for wooden beds to serve longer, they began to be reinforced with iron, and in the 18th century - with cast iron sheets. The edges on the beds helped prevent the carts from leaving the tracks.

Thus, in Petrozavodsk in 1778, a cast iron rail road was built, the length of which was 160 m. At that time, the tracks were built much narrower than modern ones (no more than 80 cm), and the rail itself was angular.

The period of development of railway transport in Russia in the first half of the 19th century was characterized by a more intensive pace. 30 years after the construction of the first 160-meter cast-iron track, a two-kilometer horse-drawn cast-iron road appeared. A significant leap in the history of the development of railway transport in Russia occurred in the period from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.

Thus, in 1913, the mileage of the railway network within the current borders of the country reached almost 72 thousand km. At the same time, the paths were placed chaotically and unevenly. The majority of roads were located in the European part of Russia. The locomotive fleet consisted of low-power steam locomotives (500-600 hp), and two-axle freight cars had an average load capacity of 15 tons.

Development strategies for Russian railways

In 2008, the Government approved a concept for improving the railway infrastructure until 2030. The strategy for the development of railway transport in Russia contains a description of a set of planned measures to create and improve rail roads, improve existing ones and adopt new requirements for rolling stock.

This program is divided into two stages. The first was implemented between 2008 and 2015, the second was launched in 2016. The development of railway transport in Russia is based on the principles of increasing the resource and raw material potential of the industry and the introduction of innovative modern technologies. The current Strategy involves the construction of more than 20 thousand km of roads by 2030.

To date, the construction of railways has already been completed with the following messages:

Polunochnoe - Obskaya - Salekhard (length about 850 km);
Prokhorovka - Zhuravka - Bataysk (the total length of the tracks is about 750 km);
Kyzyl - Kuragino (460 km);
Tommot - Yakutsk, including the section on the left bank of the Lena (550 km).

If the planned measures for the construction and commissioning of rail roads are implemented, the total length of the tracks by the end of the period will increase by 20-25%. The document, which defines the role of the prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia, focuses on the importance of this system of passenger and freight traffic for solving problems of strengthening economic sovereignty, national security and increasing the level of defense capability. In addition, the above Strategy implies a reduction in total costs in the transport segment of the national economy. An interesting detail in this context is that this kind of plan, which is being implemented in parallel with the Transport Strategy of the Russian Federation, was drawn up exclusively for the development of railway transport in Russia.

The real state of affairs in the railway infrastructure

In recent years, Russian railways have seen a decline in production and a decline in labor productivity indicators. The rolling stock used not only prevents an increase in freight turnover, but also contributes to an increase in the number of accidents on the ruts. Urgent reconstruction and major repairs are required for a significant number of train stations and railway stations.

Today, the railways of our country operate trains, cars, locomotives and special equipment produced in the USSR, Germany and Czechoslovakia. The issue of production of new equipment is under the control of the commercial holding companies Transmashholding, Sinara, ICT and the state enterprise Uralvagonzavod. Over the past ten years, the rolling stock on the most popular routes “Moscow - St. Petersburg” and “St. Petersburg - Helsinki” has been replenished with high-speed trains from the German company Siemens and the French manufacturer Alstom.

The main player on whom the prospects for the development of railway transport in Russia depend is JSC Russian Railways. The companies of this largest holding company in the country own their own railway infrastructure, a fleet of wagons and rolling stock.

Freight transportation on Russian Railways

In Russia there are several types of freight traffic on rail tracks:

local - within the same route;
direct - within the boundaries of one or several railway junctions using a single travel document;
direct mixed - implies combined transportation by several modes of transport (in addition to rail, water, road, air, water-vehicle, etc. can be used);
direct international - is carried out when transporting cargo on road sections of two or more countries under a single document.

Features of the development of railway transport in Russia, engaged in the transportation of goods, lie in the differences in delivery speed. Thus, the bulk of freight trains transport goods that do not require specific transportation conditions. Cargo compartments in passenger trains (luggage compartments) are designed for the transportation of mail, correspondence, and personal belongings of passengers. High-speed rolling stock is used to deliver perishable goods. The maximum permissible speed at which trains can travel is 160 km/h.

Features of surface rail roads in the capital

The development of railway transport in Moscow may be the envy of other regions. Despite the demand for constantly modernizing metro lines, it is planned to build and reconstruct about 80 kilometers of rail tracks in the capital over the next 2-3 years. By 2019, according to a representative of the Moscow urban planning complex, five new stations will appear within the city.

Despite the fact that just a few years ago, intracity and intercity electric train services in Moscow were considered outdated and ineffective, today experts say: surface railways are capable of providing the same carrying capacity, the same frequency of movement, volume of transportation and passenger comfort that we have metro. In addition, the capital authorities are confident that the construction of railways is a less expensive industry than the construction of a metro.

The length of the Moscow railway is more than 13 thousand kilometers, despite the fact that this type of transport serves about 30 million passengers, which is approximately a fifth of the Russian population. Another feature of the development of railway transport in Moscow is that the infrastructure extends far beyond the boundaries of the agglomeration and covers about ten constituent entities of the Central Federal District. The thing is that the capital's railway was originally intended as an inter-subject infrastructure that would allow solving interregional and intercity transport communication problems. Fundamental changes have occurred since the launch of the MCC.

Moscow ring railway artery

Central, which launched the MCC, explained the success of the project by the emergence of the actual possibility of movement in any direction by rail with a transfer. This system of commuter trains was created with the aim of integrating radial stations. Now Muscovites and guests of the capital have no problems traveling outside the Moscow Ring Road. So, for example, it won’t be difficult to get from the Kazan direction to Severyanin by transferring to the MCC along Freser or towards the Yaroslavl highway.

Since the opening of the Moscow Central Circle, almost 100 million passengers have traveled along it in less than a year. Despite the increased popularity of electric trains, they are still used as an alternative and additional type of railway transport in Russia. The stages of development of the MCC are being implemented along the path of strengthening the integration of the metro with the surface railway network.

The main problems of railways in our country

Along with the strengthening of the industrial economic sector, the stage of formation and development of railway transport in Russia is taking place. The problems in this area are gaining significance against the backdrop of global trends in technological and technical modernization, and the introduction of innovative developments in railway transport.

At the moment, it is necessary to strive to reduce the gap between the quality of Russian railways, rolling stock and infrastructure of foreign competitors. In order to first of all, it is necessary to consistently solve the main industry problems and eliminate a number of issues that impede the targeted development of railway transport in Russia.

It is necessary to proceed from the fact that the main goal of the functioning of the railway system is fast, convenient, inexpensive (that is, economically profitable) and safe transportation of passengers and delivery of goods not only within the country, but also abroad. The main problems of Russian railways as an integral infrastructure are two negative predetermining factors:

lack of economic progress and efficiency in the provision of transport services, including a lack of speed of movement, low level of comfort with unreasonably high costs of passenger transportation;
low degree of technical reliability and operational safety of trains and rail tracks.

The first group includes collisions in the technological and management sectors, which nullify the feasibility of the railway infrastructure and hamper the growth of its financial efficiency. The second category includes the difficulties of technical production, equipment and operation: problems of safe operation of equipment, technical means, the lack of a fully functioning labor protection model for industry employees, and adverse environmental impacts on adjacent territories. These problems will only get worse as railway transport develops in Russia.

Briefly about ways to solve problems

To eliminate the described imperfections in the domestic railway infrastructure, it will be necessary to take a set of measures to effectively modernize it, guaranteeing the integrity and strengthening of the economic space of the Russian Federation, but at the same time not infringing on the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of movement. The current Strategy implies a step-by-step solution to the problems of railway transport by creating conditions in Russia for achieving the fundamental geopolitical and geo-economic goals of the state. No less important is the reboot and renewal of the existing infrastructure base, which is fundamentally important for the socio-economic growth in the country. For the development of the railway transport industry it is also necessary:

ensure transport accessibility for points of resource provision and production progress;
allocate additional jobs, provide railway transport workers with social guarantees, including the right to annual rest, the right to treatment, and education;
bring the level of quality and safety of passenger transportation in line with the requirements of the population and international standards;
ensure maximum carrying capacity and reserves to create the optimal number of offers when market conditions fluctuate;
continue integration into the international railway system;
maintain a high level of skills to act in emergency situations that meet the requirements of defense capability and safety;
strive to increase the investment attractiveness of railway infrastructure;
maintain social stability in the industry and ensure a decent quality of life for workers, respect the priority of youth policy and support for industry veterans;
introduce high standards of labor productivity with sustainable provision of the transportation process by qualified specialists.

Is it worth developing railway transport?

In the age of all-consuming integration processes, the railway infrastructure has acquired the status of a mechanism, a kind of lever for the division of labor. In addition, the railway sector can be considered as a strategic object of influence of globalization processes in the world. Russian railways are also a knowledge-intensive theoretical area of economics. In order to maintain the achieved positions and continue to improve the infrastructure, it is important to create all the conditions for carrying out the latest scientific and technical developments in the country.

Railway tracks in Russia increase by several thousand kilometers every year. The railway transport sector is an integral segment of the modern economy of developed countries.

Railway transport today is the leading among universal types of passenger and cargo transportation in many large countries of the world, including Russia. This is due, first of all, to geographical features. In long-distance areas, traveling by rail is convenient, economical, and relatively safe.

Surface rail transport has roots in the distant past. It is known that in ancient times people did not have the need to move large cargo. Everything that was needed was carried on oneself. With the development of civilization, transport also improved. Rafts and then boats were used on the water. On land there are carts drawn by animals.

Appeared around the 16th century. At that time, wooden planks were used to deliver goods from mines and mines. But, as you know, wood is not a material of the highest strength. It was impossible to carry out such transportation over long distances and for a long time. The science of the past has found a way out. But the first above-ground rail track also had industrial significance. It was intended to transport coal from the mines to the villages of Wollaton and Strelley near Nottingham. And already in the 18th century, the first Russian cast-iron track with a length of 160 meters saw the light of day.

At first, only wide railway tracks were built in the world. Practical ones appeared only in the 19th century. They quickly gained recognition and distribution. Soon, narrow-gauge railways began to be used not only between raw material bases and industrial enterprises. They connected remote areas of various countries with their economic centers.

In the twentieth century, the development of railway transport went through different stages. In the last years of Tsarist Russia, narrow-gauge railways were actively built. After the revolution and with the emergence of the USSR, there was a certain calm. The Stalin era gave a new impetus to Russia. They became the famous "camp lines". After the collapse of the Gulag system, narrow-gauge railways ceased to be actively built. In general, such railways were used on a large scale in Russia until the 1900s.

Today, in most countries of the world, railway transport is divided into industrial, urban (trams) and general use (passenger, intercity freight). Modern compositions bear little resemblance to their predecessors from the 19th century. The history of railway transport is a two-century journey from the first steam locomotive in 1803 through electric and diesel locomotives of the early twentieth century to and. Today there is equipment for civilian and military purposes.

The history of the development of railway transport includes the names of engineers and mechanics from different countries: (Scotland), (France), (England), (England), (Russia), (England), Rudolf Diesel (Germany), Russian engineers, inventors, many others.

Today, many countries are connected by a network of railways. You can get by train to almost any European state, the pearls of the Middle East. The Indochinese railway network connects Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, and Singapore. Trains run throughout North and South America, Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Haiti, the Philippine Islands, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Madagascar, Cuba, Fiji, Jamaica, and Japan. And progress in the field of railway transport is moving forward confidently.

Since the wooden canvas quickly deteriorated, this prompted inventors to turn to more durable materials such as iron or cast iron. But the modernization did not end there; due to the frequent derailment of carts, unique edges (edges) were invented.

The idea of creating rail transportation came to the minds of representatives of mankind back in ancient times. Thus, in Ancient Greece there was a so-called diolcus, which was a stone path along which heavy ships were dragged across the Isthmus of Corinth. Then, deep gutters acted as guides, in which runners lubricated with animal fat were placed.

Initially, the railway track was very wide. This was due to the fact that a large distance between the wheels was considered safer, since a narrow gauge track had long been considered much more prone to accidents involving derailments and overturning of wagons. Therefore, the first narrow-gauge railways began to appear only several decades after the appearance of their broad-gauge “brothers.”

Already by the beginning of the 20th century, a fairly impressive number of narrow gauge railways existed in the vastness of Russia. Basically, the intended use of this type of railway track was quite narrow - narrow-gauge railways were widely used for transporting peat and wood. In the future, it is these railway lines that will become the basis for the formation of narrow-gauge railways in our state.

There were quite a few people in Great Britain who considered railway transport very promising, but besides them there were also ardent opponents of the construction of railways. And then, when the question arose about the construction of a new railway line connecting Manchester and Liverpool, a great many rumors and discussions arose about this.

On land close to the city of Darlington, there were a huge number of coal mines, from which coal was delivered to Stockton (a city on the Tees) and from there it reached the North Sea ports. This transportation was initially carried out in carts driven by horses, which took quite a lot of time and was very unproductive.

Over time, it became clear that the transportation of passengers and goods by rail are two incommensurably different things. So different that they require not only different types of cars in the train, but also completely different locomotives. If for passengers the priority is a smooth ride and high speed, then for cargo transportation priority is given to power and a high level of traction force.

In the thirties of the 19th century, vast lands on the territory of the then Perm province belonged to a breeder named Ivan Demidov. These were iron and copper smelters, as well as iron manufacturing plants and mines. In total, about forty thousand souls of serfs worked for the landowner Demidov, one of whom was Efim Cherepanov.

England became the birthplace of the first public railway line, and this is where the form of transport known as the Underground Railroad originated. There were several prerequisites for the construction of the subway. The main one is considered to be the fact that already in the first half of the 19th century in London, people learned and experienced the meaning of the concept of “street traffic jams”.

The Newcomen steam engine was once successfully used to pump water in mines and ship repair facilities, which lasted for more than 50 years. At the same time, this entire structure had impressive dimensions and required constant replenishment of coal reserves. At times, up to 50 horses had to be used to supply the steam engine with fuel. In general, everything indicated that this unit required improvement; the only question was who would come up with this idea first.

This unit, invented by the Frenchman Nicolas-José Cugnot, was a fairly large design. Three wheels were attached to the large platform, which became the first prototype of both a steam locomotive and a car, with the front one acting as a steering wheel. A steam boiler was also fixed in the area of the front wheel, and next to it was a two-cylinder steam engine. There was also a seat for the driver, and the “body” of the cart was intended for transporting military cargo.

The history of modern steam locomotives is integrally connected with the first experiments in creating compact steam engines. In this matter, at the end of the 18th century, great success was achieved by the famous English engineer James Watt. Its mechanisms were used in many industries and for the purpose of pumping water from mines.

Many people mistakenly believe that it was George Stephenson who first invented and designed the modern steam locomotive. However, this is not so; the English engineer entered the world history of technology as the first person who managed to prove the undeniable advantage of steam locomotive transport over horse traction.

The works of father and son Cherepanov became a bright page in the history not only of Russian technology, but were of great importance for the entire nascent locomotive industry. And it all started with the design of steam engines, the first of which had a power of only 4 horsepower. The elder Cherepanov, Efim, was greatly influenced by a trip to England, where he was able to see Stephenson’s steam brainchild with his own eyes.

The creators of the first mechanisms moving on rails were very worried that the smooth wheels of their units would begin to slip and lose traction with the railway track. And, despite the fact that by that time the Trevithick steam locomotive had already been designed, which successfully transported passengers and cargo, experiments in this direction continued.

The first internal combustion engine used to move a locomotive was designed by the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler. A demonstration of the new moving mechanism was made on September 27, 1887. Residents of Stuttgart and guests of the city could observe with their own eyes the movement of a motrice with a narrow-gauge transmission, which was driven by a two-cylinder internal combustion engine.

For a long time, locomotive manufacturers competed and collaborated to determine their optimal design and unit layout. In the 20s of the twentieth century, work was carried out in the young Soviet republic to create two vehicles at once for transporting goods and passengers. These were the diesel locomotives of Gakkel and Lomonosov.

After the end of World War II, many industrial giants gradually began to reorient themselves towards products of a peaceful nature. At this time, diesel traction, which is more profitable from an economic point of view, continues to push out steam locomotive traction on all fronts. In the United States of America, the leading position in the field of diesel locomotive construction is occupied by General Motors. Along with another technical “monster”, General Electric, this North American manufacturer is still one of the industry’s flagships today.

Before the main attention of the Russian diesel locomotive industry was focused on the implementation of the ideas of Yakov Gakkel and Yuri Lomonosov, many projects were considered in scientific circles. Some of the developments grew into prototypes, and some remained on paper; today history remembers both of them.

The idea of using electrical energy to power machines that perform mechanical work appeared quite a long time ago. Thus, back in 1834, researcher Jacobi designed an electric motor with a rotating armature; subsequently, his developments had a great influence on the development of ideas of electric traction.

Even the carriages that the Russian Empire acquired abroad still had to be rebuilt and adapted to local conditions. Indeed, abroad, the cars were intended for travel over fairly short distances with frequent stops and for use in countries where the climate was significantly milder than in Russia.

Even during the construction of the very first public railway, laid between Manchester and Liverpool, some ill-wishers talked about the project manager, George Stephenson, that he started this whole construction project only in order to find practical use for the steam locomotives manufactured at Stephenson’s personal locomotive plant. .

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28.02.2020 | 10:20
Traffic through the railway crossing in the village. Komushka (Ulan-Ude) will be limited on March 2
At the railway crossing 5657 km of the Eastern Railway, located in the village of Komushka (Ulan-Ude), on March 2, 2020, repair work will be carried out (repair of the railway track).
28.02.2020 | 10:17
VSJD transferred about 1.4 billion in taxes and insurance premiums in January
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28.02.2020 | 06:59
Efforts to prevent child injuries are taking place at VSZD
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27.02.2020 | 11:41
Traffic through the railway crossing in the village. Kultuk will be limited on February 28
At the railway crossing 5302 km of the Eastern Railway, located in the village of Kultuk, Irkutsk region, at the intersection with the A-333 highway in the direction Kultuk - Mondy, on February 28, 2020, repair work will be carried out (repair of the railway track).
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27.02.2020 | 05:10
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26.02.2020 | 12:02
VSJD employees will transfer about 5 million rubles to veterans of the Great Patriotic War on Victory Day
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26.02.2020 | 10:04
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21.02.2020 | 11:26
A bus route connecting the railway station and the airport will be launched on February 25 in Irkutsk
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21.02.2020 | 11:24
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21.02.2020 | 04:50
Ski and snowboard storage services are provided to tourists at ESR stations.
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21.02.2020 | 04:34
VSZD will deliver more than 120 thousand tons of fuel to remote areas of the Angara region under the northern delivery program in 2020
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20.02.2020 | 07:02
Russian Railways provided participants and disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War with unlimited free travel on trains
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The management of the Russian Railways holding company has decided to provide free transportation for participants and disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War with one accompanying person not only during this year. This decision has already entered into force and will always be in effect. At any time, veterans with accompanying persons will be able to travel by rail absolutely free of charge,” said Oleg Belozerov.
19.02.2020 | 11:41
18 juniors represent VSJD at the Worldskills Russia championship
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19.02.2020 | 10:43
East Siberian Railway launches a comic book competition on safety among schoolchildren
On February 20, 2020, the East Siberian Railway begins accepting entries for the “Take Care of Your Life” safety comic drawing competition. Schoolchildren of any age from the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia can participate in it.