The meeting was attended by heads of the railway administrations of the Russian Federation, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and associate members of the Council – the leaders of Georgian railways, Latvia, Bulgaria and Finland.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the railway administrations of Lithuania, Estonia and Iran, the CIS Executive Committee and UIC.
The agenda of the meeting included the consideration of the results of operational work of the railway network in 2013 and first quarter of 2014, the settlement between the railway administrations, train schedule for 2014/2015, implementation of the agreement on a unified management system and use of freight wagons.
Discussions included the acceptance of changes in the regulations such as rules of operation, numbering and cross accounting for the use of freight wagons, as well as the rules of the transport of dangerous goods and provision for the maintenance of wagons.
The session was chaired by the President of JSC “Russian Railways” Vladimir Yakunin.
On opening the meeting, Karim Massimov delivered a message from the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“Thanks to the Council for Rail Transport which provides a foundation for the development of integration of countries in the region, we have a natural competitive advantage as a geo-economic bridge between East and West, Europe and Asia. In line with the current trend of globalisation, transport and logistics systems should become a driver of economic growth in the region and its integration into the global transport infrastructure,” noted the President of Kazakhstan.
Vladimir Yakunin stressed the role of rail transport in countries within the 1520 mm domain.
“At our meetings, we always look at the questions of operation through the prism of our economies, the development of the social sphere. Cooperation on “1520” greatly enhances the potential of single railway infrastructure development opportunities. So we’re talking about the overall rail network, a unified management system movement, common legal, technical and technological principles of activity of modern railways”, said Vladimir Yakunin.
He added that the decision to establish the Integrated Transport and Logistics Company was a clear continuation of the trend of 1520 railway integration.
The Council for Rail Transport and UIC signed the MOU in 2013. This cooperation created broad opportunities for common development for mutual benefit.
