Baku hosts 61st meeting of CRT
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
The 61st meeting of the Council for Rail Transport of the CIS and the Baltic states kicked off in Baku on October 21.
The meeting brought together representatives of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Finland and Estonia.
The agenda of the meeting included discussions on implementation of decisions adopted during the Council's 60th meeting, the results of railway operations during the first nine months of the this year, traffic schedule of trains in 2015-2016 and etc.
Members of the Council for Rail Transports of CIS and the Baltic states accomplished 99.5 percent of the forecasted cargo transportation in January-September of this year, Head of the council Vladimir Yakunin said at the meeting.
He also noted that around 1.5 billion tons of freight was transported via the railways in the CIS member-states in January-September, which is about 0.5 percent below the predicted index.
"Railway administrations of all countries, except Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine, have already fulfilled their commitments," Yakunin said.
Yakunin said the cargo transportations at the international traffic decreased by 9.4 percent, while the cargo loading dropped about 2.5 percent and the average distance of transportations increased by 6.3 percent. "The total capacity of the container shipping increased by 11.8 percent and the loading of large-capacity containers accelerated by 0.4 days," he added.
Yakunin indicated that a sufficient number of freight cars served at the common railway network. "Roughly 51, 800 wagons were uncoupled during the first nine months of this year, which is about 4 percent less compared to the same period of the last year. Herewith, some 15,800 cars were uncoupled due to technical reasons along with 5,100 wagons that uncoupled after customs reasons," he noted.
The members of the CIS established the Council for Rail Transport of CIS States in February 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The purpose of the union is to coordinate the railway systems on the territories of the former union of states.
The CIS leaders approved a provision to include Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria in the Council for Rail Transport on March 20, 1992.
The Council for Rail Transports of CIS and Baltic states has taken measures to ensure the coordinated development of the infrastructure and tariff policy of railways across the CIS and Baltic zone since its establishment. It mainly focuses on promoting cooperation and resolving issues in various areas including the freight organization, transfer of cars and trains through international coupling junctions and etc.