Russian Railways’ President Oleg Belozerov reports to President Vladimir Putin on the Company’s work in 10 months of 2016
The President of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov reported the results of the Company’s work for the 10 months of 2016 from January to October to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during a working meeting, the Company's press center says in a press release.
The Company President said that the main indicators which ensure the provision of freight and passenger transportation were showing a positive trend.
Speaking about passenger traffic in particular, Belozerov said:
"The growth last year was in long-distance transport, but this year we will see growth of nearly 1% overall, both on suburban routes and in long-distance services. At the same time, the figures for the suburban routes are very good," said the Company President.
A major contribution to attracting passengers to rail was made by measures such as providing benefits to 10 to 17 year-old children travelling on long-distance trains, developing high-speed trains such as the Lastochka, Sapsan and Swift and launching the Moscow Central Ring.
Belozerov expressed special thanks to the Government of the Russian Federation, which in 2016 implemented unprecedented steps to support passenger transportation.
"A resolution was taken that the compensation rates in the suburbs would be 0.01 until 2030. At the moment, proposals have been put forward to the Duma on the abolition of value added tax and also on extending it until 2030. This creates a stable situation for the development of suburban commuter traffic. The same situation also applies to the abolition of VAT on long-distance train tickets. This will give us an opportunity to buy nearly one thousand additional new carriages next year. In other words we will undertake a major upgrade of our rolling stock," said the President of Russian Railways.
The Company will continue to improve services for passengers. In particular, the near future will see an increase in the maximum period during which railway tickets can be purchased in advance.
"We had a problem with the ticketing time. We could not sell tickets prior to 60 days, and the bulk of sales was up to 45 days before train departure. Since 11 December 2016, almost all long-distance trains will switch to 60 days, and then we will move to 90 days," said Oleg Belozerov.
Speaking about the work to optimise costs, the President of Russian Railways said that during the year, savings amounted to more than 100 billion roubles.
Work continues to achieve an annual increase in labour productivity of at least 5%, whereby the Company remains committed to its social obligations to employees, as evidenced by the new Collective Agreement for 2017-2019, which was signed today.
"Today, we have signed this most important agreement, which will cover the next three years. For the next three years, we have retained all the positive aspects contained in the previous collective agreement," said Oleg Belozerov.
Moreover, the average salary at the Company has increased to 47,000 roubles in accordance with the growth in labour work productivity.
