IN THE USSR railways built less than in RI.
Usage example
“In Tsarist Russia in the period from 1880 to 1917, i.e. over 37 years, 58,251 km were built. For 38 years of Soviet power, i.e. by the end of 1956, only 36,250 km had been built. roads."
Reality
Length of railways
In 1890, the total length of railways in Russia was 24,041 versts (Russia 1913. section - transport, 1. Railways; table 2). Later, from the 90s. In the 19th century, active construction of railways was carried out in Russia. This was done both by the state and by commercial structures. The pace has been particularly high since 1890. In many ways, this is the indisputable merit of Sergei Yulievich Witte, who has done a lot in this area.
From the “Report of the Council of Congresses of Representatives of Industry and Trade on the Issues of Radically Improving the Work of the Railway and water transport, highways due to the increased demands of the Russian national economy. May 9, 1913"
“In 1904, the total network reached 55,614 versts, having increased over the five-year period by 9,052 versts, of which in European Russia - 7,144 versts and in Asian Russia - 1,908 versts. In 1909, the network amounted to 62,422 versts (without the Chinese Eastern Railway - 1,617 versts), having increased over 5 years by 6,808 versts, of which in European Russia - 4,882 versts, and in Asian Russia - 1,926 versts . By 1910, the total railway network of 62,422 versts was breaking up: into a government network in European Russia - 32,373 versts and in Asian Russia (including the Ussuriysk railway) -10,129 versts; in total there are 42,502 versts of state-owned railways. Private railways in European Russia - 17,805 versts and public access roads of private societies - 2,115 versts or total private ones - 19,920 versts.
In total, the network of Russian railways has increased by 41,691 versts over 30 years, of which in European Russia by 31,562 versts and in Asian Russia by 10,129 versts. Consequently, the network grew annually by an average of 1,390 versts. Largest quantity increased over the five-year period 1895-1899 - by 13,755 versts, or 2,751 versts per year. Then, in the five-year period 1900-1904, the network increased by 9,052 versts, or 1,810 versts per year. The remaining five years gave an increase in the network by 5000-5500 versts, or 1000 versts on average per year.”
Note that 1 verst = 0.14375 geographical miles = 1.06679 km
From this official document It follows that in 30 years, by 1910, 41,691 versts were built in Russia, which is about 44,475 km. The highest growth rates were achieved during the period from 1895-1899 at 2,751 versts annually, which is about 2,934 km. A less high figure was achieved in the period 1900-1904 in which the growth rate was 1,810 versts per year, which is about 1,930 km. And 1000 (1066 km) versts on average per year over the next five years.
Note that in 1911, 1579 versts were discovered; in 1912 - 750 versts; in 1913 - 981 versts. (Russia 1913. section - transport, 1. Railways, table 1).
By 1913, the total length of the railway in the Republic of Ingushetia was 68,370 versts (of which only 16,889 versts were double gauge), this number included 2,494 versts of private local railways. (Russia 1913; Transport; 1. Railways Table 3) . This is the length of roads, both public and local. Converted to kilometers (68370 multiplied by 1.06679) it turns out to be approximately 72,936 km.
In the USSR by 1960, the length of railways common use, according to the statistical yearbook “National Economy of the USSR in 1960”, amounted to 125 thousand km (Section: RAILWAY TRANSPORT. Table: OPERATING LENGTH OF RAILWAYS OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS (at the end of the year; thousand kilometers) p. 353).
However, this number does not include local roads. On the same page, under the above table, there is a note: “In addition to the indicated operational length of public railways of the Ministry of Railways, there are railway access tracks industrial enterprises and organizations; The length of these non-public routes amounted to 102.4 thousand km at the beginning of 1961.” All these are railways of local importance, which also played a vital role in communications. And of course, they also had to be built.
In total, the total length of railways in the USSR was 227.8 thousand km. The difference with 1913 is 155 thousand km. Let's divide 155 by 40 (roughly from 1920 to 1960) and get an average of 3.8 thousand km. in year. Even such rough and primitive calculations give an idea of the pace and scale of railway construction at that time. This despite the fact that the country suffered such terrible disasters How Civil War from the First World War and the Second World War.
Freight volume
In addition to the total length of the railway, there is another equally important indicator. These are cargo transportation volumes and railway capacity.
The fact that the capacity of the railways built before the revolution was insufficient is evidenced by some supply difficulties that emerged during the war. Railway communications that worked normally in Peaceful time, turned out to be unprepared for wartime conditions. As General N.N. Golovin wrote: “As a result, even after the shocks caused by the evacuation were overcome by railway transport, the latter cannot cope with the tasks assigned to it in supplying supplies. Difficulties in this area are increasing as Russia emerges from a crisis in military supplies, and the latter are sent to the army in greater and greater quantities. From personal 18-month experience as Chief of Staff of the VII Army (from October 1915 to April 1917), the author can testify that, as a rule, the army did not receive on average 25% of the supplies it was entitled to. The reasons for this shortage should be entirely attributed to the insufficient carrying capacity of our railways.”
The situation especially worsened after the loss of transport hubs Vilno, Lida, Baranovichi, due to the retreat of the Russian army. To be fair, it is important to add that it was during these years that a lot of railways were built. But these were more like “firefighting” (emergency) actions.
“Such a weak railway connection was, of course, completely unsatisfactory. With possible urgency, in a very unfavorable time of year, a branch line from the Sinyavka station to Budy was built to bypass the Baranovichi junction, the construction of the track on the northern section of the Podolsk railway (Kalinkovichi - Korosten) was completed and a temporary wooden bridge was built across the river. Pripyat. After this the situation improved somewhat. The railway transfer of troops to the Southwestern Front carried out during 1916 amounted to several thousand trains. And yet, the size of this transportation did not satisfy the strategic requirements of the current situation.
One of the reasons that the Galician victory in 1916 did not give the strategic results that could have been expected is that the operational transportation required for this turned out to be completely beyond the capabilities of our railways.”N. N. Golovin
Under Soviet rule (especially in the first decades), the task was set not only to build new railways, but also to increase the capacity of old ones. By 1940, the volume of cargo transportation and railway density increased many times, as evidenced by the following figures:
Freight turnover of railway transport by individual cargo
(billions of tariff ton-kilometers)
| 1913 | 1940 | 1955 | 1958 | 1959 | I960 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total cargo turnover | 65,7 | 415,0 | 970,9 | 1302,0 | 1429,5 | 1504,3 |
| Coal and coke | 12,8 | 106,9 | 266,7 | 348,9 | 347,2 | 333,8 |
| Oil cargo | 3,5 | 36,4 | 101,6 | 154,0 | 182,1 | 205,4 |
| Ferrous metals (including ferrous metal scrap) | - | 26,2 | 75,7 | 90,6 | 100,9 | 110,4 |
| Timber cargo | 5,1 | 43,6 | 119,9 | 178,4 | 207,3 | 213,6 |
| Grain cargo | 9,9 | 32,8 | 55,1 | 80,8 | 93,7 | 90,7 |
| All kinds of ore (including sulfur pyrites) | - | 21,5 | 45,0 | 59,9 | 65,3 | 71,6 |
| Firewood | 1,7 | 5,8 | 5,2 | 6,8 | 7,5 | 8,2 |
| Mineral Construction Materials | - | 28,2 | 82,1 | 113,9 | 130,1 | 155,6 |
| Other cargo | - | 113,6 | 219,6 | 268,7 | 295,4 | 315,0 |
Rail density
(km per 1000 km2 territory)
additional literature
Discussion
Dear, I have read quite a lot on this topic, so your claims to absolute knowledge are groundless, both in the indiscriminate designation of most of the WWII railway times as temporary buildings, and in the conviction that in the USSR the same 30-40 did not exist. It was even worse. Well, in any case, including roads built during WWI in favor of the USSR is a delight. And the author to whom I referred did not come up with these numbers himself, but took them from a monograph, the author of which is much more in the subject than I am, you and especially the wrestlers are higher in the comments. The fact that the “myth-fighter” lies like a gray gelding and is not familiar with the topic even to a minimal extent cannot be changed in any way. The fact that he took into account both the roads built in the Republic of Ingushetia and those captured by the USSR as those built by the USSR is a fact. So the opus can be safely scrapped. Its value is at the noise level.
124. World rail transport
Railway transport, which originated during the Industrial Revolution, remained the main mode of transport throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
The first steam-powered railway was the Liverpool–Manchester line in England, opened in 1830. In the same year, the first railway in the USA was built, connecting the cities of Charleston and Augusta. The first railway appeared in France in 1833, and in Germany and Belgium in 1835. And in Russia, the first railway St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo (26 km) was opened in 1837. This marked the beginning of a period of rapid railway construction: from 1850 to 1900, more than 800 thousand km of tracks were put into operation in the world (on average 16 thousand km per year). The record holder in this area was the United States, and Russia came in second place. By 1920, the length of the world's railways had already reached almost 1.2 million km. They played an exceptional role in the formation of the international geographical division of labor within individual countries and continents, and, accordingly, in the formation of the world economy.
However, starting from the 20s of the twentieth century. the development of railway transport slowed down. Until the 50-70s. XX century The length of the world's railways continued to increase, but then it began to decrease (Table 140). Some regression of this type of transport was caused primarily by competition from other, newer types of transport - road, air, pipeline. As a result, the share of railway transport in global freight and passenger turnover has noticeably decreased (Fig. 104).
Despite this regression, when assessing modern stage development of the world's railway transport, one cannot help but see the radical transformations that have been taking place in this industry since the 1970s. They are aimed not so much at further expansion of the network, but at the development and implementation of new technologies, the electrification of railways, the transition to mechanization and automation systems, the use of computer technology, the creation of high-speed highways, new organization passenger and freight traffic. As a result, in the second half of the 1990s. The situation in railway transport began to stabilize. Experts believe that railway transport has found a certain niche within which it can receive new development incentives. But the prospects for new large-scale railway construction, especially in Eurasia, are now also assessed more highly.
Behind these global trends lie significant geographical differences, which reflect differences between regional transport systems and are expressed in both railway network and transport performance indicators.
Despite the relative stability of the length of the world's railway network as a whole, in some countries and regions it is decreasing, while in others, on the contrary, it is growing. Most shining example The countries where this network is being reduced are the United States. Length of railways 1950–2005 decreased there from 360 thousand km to 231 thousand, i.e. almost 1.6 times. Another example is countries Western Europe: in the UK, over the same period of time, the network decreased from 34 thousand km to 16 thousand, during
France - from 45 thousand km to 29 thousand. But, on the other hand, in many countries of the world in the second half of the 20th century. continued to expand the railway network. Examples of this kind include former USSR, China, Canada, India, some other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Suffice it to say that in China alone during the Ninth Five-Year Plan it was planned to build 20 thousand km of new railways. In total, railways continue to be built in three dozen countries.
Now let's turn to table 141, which provides information on the total length of railways and the density of the railway network in countries where this length exceeds 10 thousand km. An analysis of the table shows that there are 22 such countries in total, most of them being economically developed, and the rest being the most “advanced” developing ones.
Table 141
LENGTH OF RAILWAYS AND DENSITY OF RAILWAY NETWORK AROUND THE WORLD IN 2005
Of great interest for analysis is also the column of the table relating to the density of the railway network, the indicators of which are characterized by a very strong scatter.
Until relatively recently, the maximum was considered to be a void of more than 100 km per 1000 km 2 of territory, which several European countries. But due to the reduction of the railway network, only one remained in this group, the Czech Republic (120 km), which was not included in the table. Quite high network density rates, ranging from 50–100 km per 1000 km 2, are also typical primarily for countries foreign Europe and Japan. Very large countries - Canada, Russia, China, India, Australia and even the USA - despite the large total length of railways, have significantly lower railway network density. They are, as a rule, even lower in most developing countries (in Asia and Latin America, usually up to 10 km, and in Africa - up to 5 km per 1000 km 2 of territory). And this is not to mention the fact that in many countries Tropical Africa There are no railways at all.
Table 142
TOP TEN COUNTRIES BY SIZE OF RAILWAY FREIGHT TURNOVER IN 2005
The same large regional and country differences are hidden behind global transport performance indicators. World cargo turnover railways in 2005 amounted to 8000 billion t/km. The main role in ensuring it is played by countries that are in the top ten in terms of this indicator. They account for more than 9/10 of this cargo turnover (Table 142).
World passenger traffic railways in beginning of XXI V. remains stable at 1,900 billion passenger-kilometers. But to characterize it more realistically, let’s use a slightly different indicator: how many kilometers on average does one passenger travel by rail per year. Japan ranks first in the world for this indicator (2000 km). This is followed by Switzerland (1,700 km), Austria (1,200), Ukraine, Russia and Belarus (1,150 each), France (1,000), the Netherlands and Egypt (900 to 1,000 km).
Of great interest for characterizing the network (and operation) of railways is familiarity with the level of their electrification (Fig. 105). As can be clearly seen, the length of electrified highways is by no means always directly proportional to the size of the country’s territory or the operational length of its railway network. Also in to a greater extent this refers to the share of electrified roads in relation to their total length, which even in the 17 countries presented in Figure 105 ranges from 22–23% (China, India) to 70 (Sweden) and even 95% (Switzerland). Of the countries left outside this chart, a large share Georgia (100%), Luxembourg (95%), Armenia (91), Belgium (74), the Netherlands (73), Bulgaria (63), Norway (62%) have electrified railways. It is also interesting that in Canada and Australia there are no electrified roads at all, and in the USA they make up only 1% of the total length of the network; these countries focus only on diesel traction.
One of the main directions of “reanimation” of railway transport in Lately was the construction of high-speed highways, on which express passenger trains reach speeds of 200–300 km per hour, and sometimes even higher. The pioneers in the construction of such roads were Japan and France. Then they began to be built in other countries of Western Europe (Germany, Italy), in the USA (between Washington and New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, in Florida), in the Republic of Korea (Seoul - Busan), in China.
The fact that even large natural barriers to railway transport are no longer insurmountable is evidenced by following examples. In relation to mountains, the most famous example, of course, the Alps, where in the 19th and 20th centuries. railways were laid through passes at an altitude of 2200–2300 m. In Norway, a 500 km long railway connected Oslo and Bergen, rising to an altitude of 1300 m; it has 184 tunnels with a total length of 38 km. In the eastern part of India at the end of the 19th century. A 50-kilometer railway was built connecting the climatic resort of Darjeeling in the Himalayas with the main railway line. And the railway connecting the networks of Chile and Argentina and crossing the Andes rises to an absolute height of 4470 m! Examples of overcoming large water boundaries are more typical today. This is the construction of the Seikan Tunnel in Japan between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, the Eurotunnel in Europe, connecting the networks of Great Britain and France across the English Channel. By 2010, they also plan to build a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar, which will connect the railways of Morocco and Spain, i.e., Africa and Europe.
Rice. 105. Length of electrified railways by country of the world (their share in the total length of the country’s railways is indicated in brackets)
Russia was and remains, one might say, a great railway power. Ranking second in the world in terms of the total length of railways (85 thousand km, or 8% of the world), Russia provides 23% of the world freight turnover and 7% of the world passenger turnover of railway transport. As already noted, railways account for approximately 2/5 of Russia’s internal freight and passenger turnover, and in external transportation their share is 40–45%. In terms of freight traffic on railways (measured in million t/km per 1 km of track per year), Russia is the same as in the past Soviet Union, has no equal in the whole world. Russia is also home to the world's longest Trans-Siberian Railway (10 thousand km), the 100th anniversary of which was celebrated in 2001. Along with this, one cannot fail to take into account that in the 1990s. The performance of the country's railways has decreased significantly, and the tracks and rolling stock themselves require significant modernization. That is why in 2007 the “Strategy for the Development of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation until 2030” was adopted, the implementation of which should radically increase the country’s transport security. In particular, it is planned to build 20 thousand km of new lines.
The longest railway in Russia
In Russia, as well as throughout the world, the Trans-Siberian Railway is recognized as the longest railway. Its second name is Transsib.The construction of the giant road began in 1891. In those years, it received the name – the Great Siberian Route. Despite the fact that construction has been going on since the nineteenth century, this road has been modernized and quite modern.
Its length is almost nine thousand three hundred kilometers. The path passes through the capital of Russia, through Perm, Yaroslavl, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg and other large industrial cities. Stretching across the Far East and Eastern Siberia, this record-breaking railway spans the largest gateways to Asia. Connecting Asia and Europe, most of it passes through Asia.
The fastest train on the Trans-Siberian Railway is Rossiya. His route is Moscow-Vladivostok. The train delivers passengers from one destination to another in just over six days.
It must be said that Russia is second only to America in the length of railway tracks, being in second place in the world. The length of Russian networks is eighty-five thousand kilometers, three hundred meters.
Longest railroad in the USA
The oldest and one of the longest in America is the transcontinental railroad, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Construction began during the time of President Lincoln, and was carried out for a long time and with great difficulties.The opening took place in 1869. It took the locomotive almost eighty-four hours to travel from San Francisco to New York. This significant railway connected ports located on two oceans and became an impetus for the development of the US economy. By the end of the nineteenth century, three more transcontinental railways had appeared on the continent; today there are seven.
Thanks to the growing popularity of railways and their active construction, America has become the world leader in the length of the railway network (two hundred and fifty-four thousand miles). Now there is a tendency towards a significant reduction.
In 2001, the two roads were merged in order to improve them. economic situation and competitiveness. This created the longest system in the United States, which included fifty-four thousand kilometers of one road and fifty-three thousand kilometers of another.
Longest railway in Latin America
In Latin America, railroad construction began in the nineteenth century and continued until the mid-twentieth century. Transcontinental railroads cross countries such as Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Central America, Bolivia, Argentina. They are distinguished by their large length, but low technical equipment.Railway lines are distributed very unevenly throughout Latin America. A country like Argentina is in first place among the countries of its continent in terms of passenger traffic. The length of the railways in this country is thirty-two thousand kilometers.
One cannot help but say about Brazil and Mexico. Countries on their continent occupy leading positions in terms of the volume of freight transport by rail. The length of railways in Mexico is twenty-one thousand kilometers, and in Brazil - thirty thousand kilometers.
China recently signed an agreement with Brazil to build a transatlantic railway that will connect the country's midwest to the Pacific Ocean. This road, passing through Bolivia and Peru, will enable all Latin American countries to trade directly with China.
The longest railway in minecraft
In popular minecraft game Anyone can act as a railroad builder. Fans of the game, numerous gamers, even compete with each other to see who has the longest road.Railway network Russian Federation quite extensive. It consists of several sections of highways, which are owned by Russian Railways OJSC. Moreover, all regional roads are formally branches of JSC Russian Railways, while the company itself acts as a monopolist in Russia:
The road runs through the territory of the Irkutsk and Chita regions and the republics of Buryatia and Sakha-Yakutia. The length of the highway is 3848 km.
The road runs along two parallel latitudinal directions: Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod- Kirov and Moscow - Kazan - Yekaterinburg, which are connected by roads. The road connects the Central, North-Western and Northern regions of Russia with the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia. The Gorky road borders on the following railways: Moscow (Petushki and Cherusti stations), Sverdlovsk (Cheptsa, Druzhinino stations), Northern (Novki, Susolovka, Svecha stations), Kuibyshevskaya (Krasny Uzel, Tsilna stations). The total developed length of the road is 12066 km. The length of the main railway tracks is 7987 km.
The railway passes through the territory of five constituent entities of the Russian Federation - Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, Amur and Jewish Autonomous Regions, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Its service area also includes the Magadan, Sakhalin, Kamchatka regions and Chukotka - over 40% of the territory of Russia. Operating length - 5986 km.
The Trans-Baikal Railway runs in the south-east of Russia, through the territory of the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Amur Region, is located next to the border of the People's Republic of China and has the only direct land border railway crossing in Russia through the Zabaikalsk station. Operating length - 3370 km.
The West Siberian Railway passes through the territory of Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk regions, Altai Territory and partly the Republic of Kazakhstan. The developed length of the main tracks of the highway is 8986 km, the operational length is 5602 km.
The road operates in special geopolitical conditions. It runs through Kaliningrad shortest way from the center of Russia to the countries of Western Europe. The road does not have common borders with Russian Railways. The total length of the highway is 1,100 km, the length of the main routes is over 900 kilometers.
The highway passes through four large regions - Kemerovo region, Khakassia, Irkutsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, connecting the Trans-Siberian and South Siberian Railways. Figuratively speaking, this is a bridge between the European part of Russia, its Far East and Asia. The operational length of the Krasnoyarsk road is 3160 km. The total length is 4544 kilometers.
The railway stretches from the Moscow region to the Ural foothills, connecting the center and west of the Russian Federation with large socio-economic regions of the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The road consists of two almost parallel lines running from West to East: Kustarevka - Inza - Ulyanovsk and Ryazhsk - Samara, which connect at the Chishmy station, forming a double-track line ending at the spurs of the Ural Mountains. Two other lines of the road Ruzaevka - Penza - Rtishchevo and Ulyanovsk - Syzran - Saratov run from North to South.
Within its current boundaries, the Moscow Railway was organized in 1959 as a result of the full and partial unification of six roads: Moscow-Ryazan, Moscow-Kursk-Donbass, Moscow-Okruzhnaya, Moscow-Kyiv, Kalinin and Northern. The deployed length is 13,000 km, the operational length is 8,800 km.
The Oktyabrskaya Mainline passes through the territory of eleven constituent entities of the Russian Federation - Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda, Murmansk, Tver, Moscow, Yaroslavl regions, the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg and the Republic of Karelia. Operating length - 10143 km.
The Volga (Ryazan-Ural) railway is located in the southeast of the European part of Russia in the region of the Lower Volga and the middle reaches of the Don and covers the territories of the Saratov, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, as well as several stations located within the Rostov, Samara regions and Kazakhstan. The length of the road is 4191 km.
The highway connects the European and Asian parts of Russia, stretches for one and a half thousand kilometers from west to east and crosses in the northern direction Arctic Circle. Passes through Nizhny Tagil, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Surgut, Tyumen. It also serves the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs. Operating length - 7154 km. The deployed length is 13,853 km.
The highway originates in the center of Russia and extends far to the north of the country. Most of the Northern Mainline is operated in the harsh conditions of the Far North and the Arctic. The unfolded length is 8500 kilometers.
The road’s service area includes 11 constituent entities of the Russian Federation of the Southern Federal District; it directly borders Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The operational length of the highway is 6358 km.
The South-Eastern Railway occupies a central position in the railway network and connects the eastern regions and the Urals with the Center, as well as the regions of the North, North-West and Center with Northern Caucasus, Ukraine and the states of Transcaucasia. The South-Eastern Road borders on the Moscow, Kuibyshev, North Caucasus, and Southern Railways of Ukraine. Operating length - 4189 km.
The South Ural Railway is located in two parts of the world - at the junction of Europe and Asia. It includes Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Orenburg and Kartalinsk branches. Several mainline railway lines pass through the territory of Kazakhstan. The South-Eastern Road borders on the Moscow, Kuibyshev, North Caucasus, and Southern Railways of Ukraine. Operating length - 4189 km. The developed length is over 8000 km.
The first railways in Russia were built in the middle of the 19th century. In 1837, 12 years after the start of traffic on the world's first public railway Stockton - Darlington in England, the "experimental" railway St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo was opened, and in 1851 the first major railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg. Already by end of the 19th century V. railway transport exceeded the traditional horse-drawn and river transport in terms of freight turnover in Russia, and by 1913 it exceeded the freight turnover of river transport by a factor of six.
The main framework of the Russian railway network was formed in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Railways were built primarily to ensure transport and economic connections between the Center and the country's main raw material and food bases, as well as seaports, which determined their radial configuration.
Railway transport is the leading transport system in Russia. Its leading importance is due to two factors: technical and economic advantages over most other types of transport and the coincidence of the direction and capacity of the main transport-economic interdistrict and interstate (within the CIS) connections of Russia with the configuration, throughput and carrying capacity of railways (as opposed to river and maritime transport). This is also due to the geographical features of our country. The length of railways in Russia (87 thousand km) is less than in the USA and Canada, but the work they perform is greater than in other countries of the world.
The main task of Russian railways is to provide reliable transport connections between the European part of the country and its eastern regions. It should be noted that the most important transport lines are overloaded. The average speed on railways is about 30 km/h and is constantly decreasing. The densest and most extensive network of railways is located in the European part of the Russian Federation.
It is known that the railways of the Russian Federation, having 11-12% of the total length of the world's railways, carry more than 30% of the railways' freight turnover. Railways remain the most economical mode of transport (unlike air and road transport), second only to pipeline and sea transport in terms of transportation costs. The advantage of railway transport is its independence from natural conditions (the construction of railways in almost any territory, the ability to rhythmically carry out transportation in all seasons, unlike river transport).
One of the basic sectors of the Russian economy is railway transport. The efficiency of this industry affects the growth rate in almost all sectors of the Russian economy. The railway system ensures the unity of the territory of Russia, the intensity of economic ties in the country, and is one of the factors determining the volumes and directions of our foreign trade. More than 80 percent of freight turnover (excluding pipeline transport) falls on railways.
The density of settlement of citizens throughout the Russian Federation and the mobility of labor resources depend on the quality of railway communication. Railways account for more than 40 percent of all passenger traffic.
Russia ranks first in the world in terms of the length of electrified railways - more than 44 thousand kilometers (the total length of railway tracks is more than 85 thousand kilometers). The second and third places in this indicator are occupied by China and Germany, with more than 24 thousand and 21 thousand kilometers of electrified roads, respectively. It is expected that by 2010, up to 84% of all transportation work will be carried out on electrified sections of Russian railways.
The longest (and at the same time the oldest) among Russian railways is Oktyabrskaya (put into operation in 1851; reaches a length of 10,334 kilometers; passes through the territories of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Murmansk, Tver and Yaroslavl regions and the Republic of Karelia; the maximum achieved speed on the Moscow - St. Petersburg line is 260 kilometers per hour). The Oktyabrskaya Road is inferior in length to Moskovskaya (8984 kilometers) and Sverdlovskaya (7091.3 kilometers). The least extensive among Russian railways are Kaliningrad (963 kilometers) and Sakhalin (804.9 kilometers).
The amount of cargo transported by Russian railways in 2006 amounted to 1 billion 311 million 312 thousand tons (3% more than in 2005, and 0.7% more than the plan), cargo turnover - 1 trillion. 948 billion ton-kilometers (growth - 4.8%). The volumes of transportation of most of the main types of cargo, compared to previously planned, were exceeded: oil and oil products - by 4.6% (a total of 228 million 310 thousand tons transported), coal - by 3.3% (287 million tons). 548 thousand tons), coke - by 0.9% (11 million 347 thousand tons), iron and manganese ore - by 6.8% (108 million 350 thousand tons), ferrous metal scrap - by 2. 2% (26 million 639 thousand tons), cement - by 11.6% (38 million 236 thousand tons), forestry products - by 0.1% (64 million 154 thousand tons). In the first quarter of 2007 freight turnover of railway transport amounted to 502.5 billion ton-kilometers.
The main advantages of railway transport:
High carrying capacity;
Efficiency of transportation of bulk cargo over long distances;
Relatively high speeds;
Reliability and safety;
Low cost of transportation;
Less environmental impact than other modes of transport.
The share of railway transport in the total volume of traffic in each country is determined by taking into account economic, geographical, demographic and other factors:
Placements natural resources and productive forces;
Population size;
Territory size;
Availability of ice-free waterways.
In the Russian Federation, with its vast territory and natural features, the remoteness of the raw material base from processing enterprises, railway transport forms the basis of the transport system, carrying more than 80% of the freight turnover of all types of transport (without pipelines) and over 40% of the passenger turnover of public transport in long-distance and suburban communications.
Russian railways are the largest, well-developed, dynamically and efficiently functioning system. The railway network has a length of more than 85 thousand km.
Railway tracks approach the seaport in Vladivostok