“We are finishing the highway from Chita to Khabarovsk. In fact, this is an historic event for Russia. Russia has never been entirely connected by road through its territories. Until recently - 100 years ago, or how many, up until 1903? - in order to travel from European Russia to the Far East, people either travelled on the winter road in winter or on ships across the Indian Ocean. A railway was built by 1904, and this was because of an impending war with Japan. In Soviet times, another branch of this railroad was built as a result of deteriorating relations with China. And there was no highway at all. And now we are completing 2,500 km between Chita and Khabarovsk. And for the first time in history, Russia will be connected by roads throughout its territory - you'll be able to drive from its westernmost to its easternmost point.”
“We all understand that for Russia, with its enormous territory, the development of aviation and airports is critical. It is one of our top priorities, and we must address it in order to ensure the unity of Russia's territory and the Russian nation. Air transportation in Russia is currently booming. Passenger air travel has not only recovered since the crisis, it has exceeded the peak reached in 2008. In January-May, 2010 air travel increased by 32.3% against the same period of 2009. These trends are directly related to the growing capacity of Russian airports.”
“Another issue the new technical regulations will address is establishing a legal framework for introducing high-speed passenger service so that in the future administrative barriers do not hamper the design and construction of new lines. As you know, in addition to the line from Moscow to St. Petersburg, high-speed trains will start running between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Helsinki and, in the future, in other areas, for example to and from Smolensk, which will allow us to establish a high-speed railway connection with our major European partners. I have also instructed those responsible to look into the possibility of bringing high-speed rail to Siberia.”
“Progress has also been slow on updating the regulatory framework for electronic bidding and applying it to road construction. Finally, we effectively lack a mechanism that would ensure the stability and predictability of funding for road construction, while it is clear that the successful implementation of expensive and capital-intensive projects is impossible if the amount of funds allocated for the project can change at any moment. So, we need to more clearly define government and private sources of financing for infrastructure. This applies to both large, strategic construction projects and our ongoing maintenance commitments”.
“I would like to emphasize that infrastructure development must be accompanied by serious investments in safety. It is essential that we guarantee a new level of anti-terrorism security, fire safety and technical monitoring of the tracks and rolling stock. Under the plan, 4.5 billion roubles will be invested to enhance railway safety in 2010.”
“It is necessary to increase the capacity of our railways in Baltic and Pacific ports considerably. They should operate as effective logistical hubs. We're talking about the reconstruction of the Mga-Gatchina-Ivangorod line and the railway providing access to the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. We're also talking about and the Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskay Gavan line, which will help develop the ports of Vanino, Sovetskaya Gavan and some other areas.”
“In 2009, the cost of freight carriage was supposed to increase by almost 16%, 15.9%to be exact, but in reality it did not increase by more than 10.6%. This took a burden off the real economy during a difficult crisis year by cutting transport expenses. We will continue to keep tariff increases under control this year.”
“Our priorities here? First, we must concentrate on the development of high-speed passenger rail along the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod line and the railway from St Petersburg to the Finnish border. The Moscow-St Petersburg line showed that high-speed rail is in much demand. Second, we must continue building a railway to connect Yakutsk with the general railway network.”
“A large number of important documents outlining the future of the industry were adopted in 2008, primarily the Strategy for Developing Russia's Railway Transport up to 2030 and the targeted federal programme for developing Russia's transport network through 2015. <…>I would like to start by saying that these plans remain in place despite the economic difficulties we and the rest of the world are experiencing.”
“It was so important for us not to scale back our construction projects or waste the experience acquired while implementing major projects during the downturn in 2009. Government support to Russian Railways in 2009 amounted to a handsome 130 billion roubles. Reimbursement for lower freight tariffs added up to 40.5 billion roubles; 38.4 billion roubles went in subsidies for discounted long-distance travel by students; 41.5 billion roubles for infrastructure construction in Sochi, six billion roubles to build a detour around the man-made disaster area in Beryozniki, and three billion roubles to purchase railway carriages from the Tver rail car plant. In addition, Russian Railways saved almost 900 million roubles - 890 million roubles, to be exact - on import duties for Sapsan high-speed trains.”
