Russian Railways President says the Company is ready to create additional opportunities to attract customers
Oleg Belozerov, President of Russian Railways, spoke at the plenary session of "Back to Growth: Strategy for Russia", which held on October 2, 2015 at the International Investment Forum Sochi-2015.
"The development of rail infrastructure in itself stimulates economic development. As an example, the Baikal Amur Main Line (BAM) and the Trans-Siberian have modernised Russia's Eastern region, resulted in an additional transport capacity of 66 million tons, 40,000 new jobs and the greater involvement of 19 divisions," said Oleg Belozerov.
At the moment, Russian Railways is implementing a number of major infrastructure projects. The Company is modernising the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway, developing the approach lines to the ports in North-West and South Russia, reconstructing the Moscow transport hub and designing the Moscow - Kazan high-speed highway.
Speaking about the development of Russian Railways and the railway industry in general, Oleg Belozerov named three key areas of work: reducing internal costs, increasing energy efficiency and attracting innovative technologies to the industry, as well as increasing customer focus.
"We believe that we must fight for the customer. Together with our partners, we are ready to create opportunities so that we can attract additional freight flows and our colleagues can enjoy cheaper rates," said Oleg Belozerov.
It is not just a question of freight traffic, however, but also of making the passenger complex more customer oriented.
In 2015-2016, the Company will continue its efforts to increase internal efficiency, reduce costs and improve labour productivity, which in the 9 months from January to September 2015 increased by almost 5%.
