RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) plans to increase capital investment by 7% from $US 11.4bn this year to $US 12.2bn in 2015, Mr Valentin Gapanovich, senior vice-president of innovative development and chief engineer with RZD, announced at the 9th 1520 railway forum organised by RZD in Sochi last week.

TVERSKOY Wagon Plant, a subsidiary of Transmashholding (TMH), Russia, presented a mock-up of its next generation EMU at the 9th 1520 railway forum organised by Russian Railways (RZD) in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

THE president of Russian Railways (RZD), Mr Vladimir Yakunin, joined a demonstration run at the Russian Railway Research Institute (VNIIZhT) Scherbinka test track on June 10 on the first of seven trains being supplied by Patentes Talgo, Spain, under a contract awarded in June 2012.

Ilya Shirokobrod, vice-president and head of the railway products division with Evraz, Russia, takes a look at how the market for rails is developing both technically and commercially, and the company's position in the market.

DESPITE revenues increasing by 14.4% year-on-year to Roubles 1.76 trillion ($US 48.91bn) in 2013 from Roubles 1.54 trillion in 2012, Russian Railways' (RZD) profit fell from Roubles 93.7bn to Roubles 36.7bn during the same period.

BELARUS Railways (BC) will introduce five-car Stadler Flirt EMUs on Minsk - Baranovichi, Minsk - Orsha, and Baranovichi - Brest services on May 1, replacing four-car Flirts which will be transferred to the recently-electfied Minsk - Osipovichi - Bobruysk line.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has commenced testing of freight traffic on the reopened link from the Khasan border station of the Trans Siberian Railway in western Siberia to the port of Rason, North Korea.

THE national railways of Russia (RZD), Kazakhstan (KTZ) and Belarus (BC), the United Transport & Logistics Company Project Office (UTLC PO), and DHL Global Forwarding have signed a MOU to develop railfreight forwarding services between China and Europe with door-to-door delivery of containers.

THE General Director of Serbian Railways (ZS) Mr Dragoljub Simonovic and Mr Sergei Pavlov, CEO of Russian Railways (RZD) subsidiary RZD International signed a $US 89.9m contract in Belgrade on March 6 to finance and implement the modernisation of the Serbian section of Pan-European Corridor 10.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) subsidiary Central Suburban Passenger Company has awarded a contract to Demikhovsky Machine Building Plant (DMZ), part of the Transmashholding (TMH) group, to supply 26 class ED4M emus for suburban services in the Moscow area.