Russian suburban services are struggling to achieve what was hoped when the railway market was reformed in Russia in 2001. Vladimir Savchuk, deputy director general of Russia's Institute of Natural Monopolies Research (IPEM), considers what is holding these suburban operations back and explains how a new round of regulatory changes could halt their decline.

THE first 1520mm-gauge trials of Alstom's NBT slab track system began on November 15, when testing was launched at the VNIIZhT test centre at Shcherbinka near Moscow in the presence of Russian Railways (RZD) senior vice-president Mr Valentin Gapanovich.

CHINA's premier Mr Li Keqiang and Russian prime minister Mr Dimitry Medvedev have overseen the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries for Russia's proposed Moscow - Kazan high-speed project, which could see Chinese companies invest up to $US 10bn in the $US 25bn undertaking.

The emergence of gas-reciprocating traction could be an important breakthrough in Russia, a country with a plentiful supply of natural gas. The Russian Institute of Research, Design and Technological Studies and Transmashholding have developed the TEM19 locomotive to prove the concept in service.

A consortium of Alstom, Russian Railways subsidiary RZD International, and the Belgrade-based Mikhaljo Pupin has been awarded a contract to supply signalling systems for the upgrading of a section of the Serbian Railways (ZS) line between Belgrade Vrsac and the Romanian border near Pančevo.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has carried out a series of demonstration runs in western Siberia using its new-generation Lastochka (Swallow) EMU, the first appearance of the type east of the Urals.

TALGO has delivered a variable-gauge set of 20 coaches for Russian Railways (RZD) to Berlin in readiness for testing on the German network.

TRANSMASHHOLDING (TMH) presented the first four-unit 4ES5 electric locomotive for Russian Railways (RZD) to the governor of the Rostov region Mr Vasiliy Golubev, and RZD president Mr Vladimir Yakunin at Rostov-on-Don station earlier this month.

TRTrans, a 50:50 joint venture between Alstom and Transmashholding (TMH), Russia, has obtained certification for its new 2ES5 double-unit 25kV ac electric locomotive for Russian Railways (RZD).