SIEMENS-SINARA joint venture Ural Locomotives celebrated the sixth anniversary of its plant at Verkhnyaya Pyshma near Yekaterinburg on July 1 with the rollout of the 600th class 82 2ES6 double-unit freight locomotive for Russian Railways (RZD).

THE president of Russian Railways (RZD), Mr Oleg Belozerov, and the CEO of China Railway Corporation (CRC), Mr Sheng Guangji, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing on June 25 in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD), Gazprom, Transmashholding (TMH) and Sinara signed an agreement on June 17 at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum aimed at increasing the use of natural gas as a fuel for rail transport.

MR Oleg Valinskiy, vice-president of Russian Railway (RZD), says that RZD will complete the modernisation of the 1067mm-gauge railway on Sakhalin island and its conversion to 1520mm gauge in 2018.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) reported a 10.8% year-on-year increase in revenues to Roubles 1.99 trillion ($US 30.97bn) in 2015 following growth in freight traffic and infrastructure access revenues during the year.

TRANSMASHHOLDING subsidiary Bryansk Engineering Plant (BMZ) has unveiled a prototype six-axle shunting locomotive for Russian Railways (RZD).

EVRAZ has reported a 12.5% increase in the sale of railway products including rails from 362,000 tonnes in the last quarter of 2015 to 408,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2016, and a 2% increase in tonnage between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016.

SERBIAN Railways (ŽS) restored freight services on the newly-modernised Mala Krsna - Velika Plana line south of Belgrade on April 1 to accommodate traffic diverted from the Serbian section of the Belgrade - Bar (Montenegro) line, which is currently closed due to landslides between Ražane and Kosjerića.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) is to order 507 new diesel and electric locomotives in 2016 at a cost of Roubles 69.2bn ($US 897m).

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) carried fewer passengers and less freight in 2015 according to operational data released by the railway on January 11.