Russian Railways uses various geosynthetic materials to protect track subgrade formations. Gleb Soloviev, design engineer at Tensar, Russia, and Dr Alexey Kolos, from the Petersburg State University of Railway Transport, compare the performance of different materials in Russia's harsh climatic conditions.

A memorandum of cooperation between China and Russia was signed in the Kremlin on May 9 which Russia's Tass news agency says will result in China investing Roubles 104bn ($US 2bn) in the Roubles 1 trillion Moscow – Kazan high-speed project.

IMPROVING performance at its logistics service division helped Russian Railways (RZD) to report increased revenues in 2014. However, the holding company did report a net loss of Roubles 99.3bn ($US 1.96bn) following the weakening of the Rouble compared with major international currencies which led to significant exchange rate differences and an increase in the value of debt held in other currencies.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) began selling tickets on May 6 for its new Moscow - Nizhniy Novgorod Strizh (Swift) services, which will be launched on June 1 using RZD's new fleet of Talgo coaches and EP 20 electric locomotives.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has selected a consortium led by Mosgiprotrans and including Nizhegorodmetroproekt and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (CREEC) to provide preliminary surveys and design for the proposed Moscow - Kazan high-speed line.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) issued an invitation to tender on March 16 for a contract to carry out engineering design, project planning, and alignment studies for the 770km Moscow – Kazan high-speed line.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has begun six months of trials with the first of 32 diesel locomotives being supplied by Sinara for the 1067mm-gauge network on the Pacific island of Sakhalin.

NEW train schedules were launched across Europe on December 14, and according to the December issue of the European Rail Timetable, the improvements outnumber the number of services being withdrawn.

THE International Union of Railways (UIC) has re-elected Dr Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways (RZD), as its chairman for a second two-year term during its 85th general assembly which was held on December 3 in Paris.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) expects to invest $US 8.68bn in infrastructure projects in 2015 as part of a $US 29.37bn three-year programme which was presented during a meeting with the Russian government on November 26.