Putin announced a decrease in loading on the railroad network in 2024
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Russia's first high-speed highway (HSL) between Moscow and St. Petersburg will be built on time, and all work is on schedule. This became known at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Transport Minister Roman Starovoit on January 30. They also discussed the prospects of reducing the time of inspection at checkpoints and the development of river passenger transportation. Separately, the head of state drew the minister's attention to the problem of decreasing loading on the network of Russian Railways.
What was discussed at the meeting
About 8 trillion rubles until 2030 will be allocated for the development of two new national projects - "Efficient Transportation System" and "Infrastructure for Life", developed by the Ministry of Transport. In addition, the ministry has created a federal project "River Highways". The Minister dwelt separately on the issues of river transport development, emphasizing its demand, including in terms of interregional passenger transportation. According to Roman Starovoit, river transportation in the Russian Federation has been undeservedly neglected since the late 90s. Now the ministry has already managed to increase transportation by this method by 13.5%, up to 10 million passengers. "The potential is very good," Vladimir Putin remarked.
One of the blocks of work of the Ministry of Transport is the improvement of the system of checkpoints. Thus, the works on a very complicated, according to the Ministry's estimates, engineering facility have been completed. We are talking about the checkpoint at Upper Lars with Georgia. New checkpoints were also put into operation in the DNR, LNR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The agency has managed to increase the capacity to inspect passing vehicles. For example, at the checkpoints Russia - Azerbaijan in recent years has increased capacity five times, Russia - China twice, Russia - Georgia also twice. "Your task to reduce the inspection time to 10 minutes by 2030 will be fulfilled. An additional 150 billion rubles have been allocated for this purpose," the minister promised.
Vladimir Putin drew attention to the decline in loading indicators on the railroad network. According to Roman Starovoit's estimates, it has fallen by 4%, and this is below the expectations of the Ministry, which were preparing for a decline of 5%. The authorities together with RZD are already working on this problem, assured the head of the ministry. Earlier it was reported that loading on the railroad network in 2024 amounted to 1.181 billion tons, down 4.1% compared to 2023.
Separately touched upon one of the main transportation projects - the construction of the first high-speed railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg. The head of the Ministry of Transport assured: the project is on schedule and will be delivered on time. Vladimir Putin gave the start to the construction of the Moscow - St. Petersburg high-speed railroad back in March. The length of the highway will be 679 kilometers, travel time between Moscow and St. Petersburg - 2 hours and 15 minutes. The launch is being prepared for April 2028.