Russian Railways: Uzbekistan to have opportunity to increase traffic

By Trend

Uzbekistan has opportunity to increase its traffic through the Russian Railways, because of certain benefits.

"Uzbekistan receives a benefit of 50 percent, from the discount to the tariff of the Russian Railways, of the size of the freight charge on the network of Russian railways, and this means the traffic can increase," the representative of Russian Railways told Trend.

Trend recently reported that Russian Railways is extending a 50 percent discount on imports of fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan to Russia in refrigerated rolling stock owned by the Uzbek Railways.

It was noted that this discount has been granted for many years, and at the next meeting of the board of JSC Russian Railways its validity was extended until the end of 2020.

“The company makes tariff decisions based solely on economic feasibility. Reducing the tariff allows attracting additional volumes of cargo to the Russian railways and ensuring break-even of transportation,” the official of Russian Railways said.

Responding to a question of Trend about plans to set the same tariffs for the transportation of other types of goods, the official stated that in order to pursue a flexible tariff policy, Russian Railways is constantly monitoring commodity markets and is considering proposals to reduce tariffs from shippers and public organizations etc.

“These proposals should contain the rationale for granting discounts: revenue from growth in traffic should cover a decrease in revenue per ton,” the representative added.

In 2018, the volume of transportation of foreign trade goods between Russia and Uzbekistan increased by 2 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to 6.8 million tons.