Russian Railways leaked audio: ‘We want hundred thousand wagons off the rails’

In a leaked conversation with Russian government officials, Russian Railways’ (RZD) head Oleg Belozerov ordered no less than 100,000 wagons to be removed from the rail network. The measure was met with dissatisfaction, but Belozerov insisted that he cannot work with the current amount of wagons on the network. The leaked audio file also seems to confirm that RZD is losing out on 192,000 tonnes of freight daily due to a locomotive shortage.

The leaked audio file was published by a Russian anti-corruption organisation on Telegram. Belozerov wants to reduce the working fleet of wagons in Russia by 100,000 to 1,1 million. He seems to leave it up to Russia’s Central Direction for Transport Management to figure out which operators are going to have to leave their wagons in which locations.

An attendee of the recorded meeting laments the measure. Belozerov responds defeatedly: “I understand that a million is little for you. Well, this is all I can do for now.”

Operational chaos

It is a well-known issue of the Russian railway network that there are too many idling wagons, which cause “operational chaos”. The anti-corruption organisation claims that there is no freight to carry, which is supposedly why there are so many empty wagons that need to be removed.

This, however, seems unlikely and does not correspond to publicly available information, nor to what the RZD head said in the recorded meeting. Earlier, an RZD source told Russian media that the company is losing out on 192,000 tonnes daily due to a persistent locomotive shortage. This number is also brought up by Belozerov: “This 192,000 daily, translate them into freight classes and [report] that we are not accepting that number for transportation due to a lacking fleet, and that we cannot make such billions [of rubles].”

3,500 locomotives necessary

In other words, RZD is losing out on big money as a result of its traction deficit. Belozerov also highlights that issue, saying that his company needs to get additional locomotives to bridge the loading gap. Based on his words, the locomotive deficit seems to be as large as 3,500.

The anti-corruption organisation behind the leaked file points out that many small wagon operators, whose business is entangled with Russian Railways, will likely start to go bankrupt once the 100,000 wagons are sent off the rail network.

European Silk Road Summit 2024

Eurasian rail freight will be one of the key Silk Road topics we will discuss at the European Silk Road Summit 2024, taking place in Vienna on 27-28 November.

Registrations for the yearly event are already open, while the programme, which this year highlights the fast-recovering China-Europe rail market, is shaping up.