04 марта 2016г.
Widescale reform of railway transport which has been implemented in Russia since the beginning of 2000 has led to a considerable increase of rolling stock owners and growth of competition in the sphere of rolling stock operation. As a result control of freight cars has completely passed into the hands of private operating companies.
Despite the huge number of advantages of this way of operating, which is the integral part of developed competitive transport market, shift of freight cars in the private category decreases efficiency of their use (one particular reason is that the loading is to be processed on the freight car of the owner, with whom the contract is signed, but not the closest one). Deterioration of operational indexes of rolling stock has required an attraction of investments into its renovation, because more freight cars were needed for transportation of the same freight volume. Thus the rolling stock fleet has increased by 50 thousand cars since January 2014 and by 200 thousand (or 22%) since the pre-crisis 2007. The main increase occurred in the gondola cars, which number has doubled over the last five years.
Because of such a rapid growth the infrastructure has turned into a large parking of freight cars unclaimed for transportation, with their number still steadily growing. Primarily it is due to the fact that the growth rate of cars number is 3,5 times higher than the growth rate of freight turnover. For gondola cars this index is much higher - 6 times.
For 12 months of 2014 the fleet of freight cars not involved in the transportation process and occupying public infrastructure was 339 thousand daily average. 215 thousand of them were cars of operating park unclaimed for transportation and 124 thousand belonged to non-operating park. Compared with 2015 the surplus of the car fleet has increased by 27,1 thousand units or 2,2%.
In March 2014 the 9th meeting of the assembly of the heads of railways approved, by the request of the JCS Russian Railways President V. Yakunin, "Method of calculating the performance of the car fleet allowing to monitor, analyze and assess the impact of redundancy of car fleet on the effectiveness and efficiency of the railway network" in order to estimate an influence of excess fleet on the economy of JSC Russian Railways and on the growth of transportation costs for freight owners.
In accordance with the calculations of JSC "NIIAS" and JSC "VNIIZhT", conducted by the algorithms of this method, influence of excess working car fleet, located on JSC Russian Railways infrastructure, for twelve months of 2014 has led to the loss of service speed by 1,27 km/h, reduction of performance of locomotive by 70,2 thousand ton-km gross daily and slowdown in turnover by 3,45 days.
Reduction in processing capacity of stations due to occupation of railroads capacity by cars of non-working fleet has become a reason of slowdown in turnover by 1,99 days, service speed - on 0,74 km/h, reduction of locomotive performance by 40,5 thousand ton-km gross daily.
Total direct economic losses of JSC "Russian Railways" for the twelve months of 2014 due to the service speed slowdown by 2.00 km/h amounted to 5.75 billion rub including: the maintenance of additional locomotives (326 units daily) and brigades (1392 people a day), consumption of fuel and energy resources - 3.0 billion rub setting aside trains from movement - 1,7 billion rub, the growth of shunting operations, processing and downtime in shunting stations - 1.1 billion rub.
Risks of filing penalties for violation of terms of delivery of empty cars are estimated at 3.8 billion rub.
Taking into account the loss of profits from the discoordination of operators in placing unclaimed for carriage cars on paid layover (estimated - 4.4 billion rub) overall negative impact of excess fleet on the financial results of JSC Russian Railways for January - December is estimated at 14.0 billion rub.
Calculating made by this method demonstrates an influence of the problem of excess freight car fleet on the overall operation of railway network only from the technological point of view: reduction of the trains speed, locomotive performance, car turnover, infrastructure capabilities. But there is also a commercial side of this question concerning cooperation of operating companies with freight owners. On the one hand, reduction of the fleet will lead to the improving of quality indicators of JSC Russian Railways, but on the other hand it will cause the price increase for services provided by operators of rolling stock due to so-called commercial deficit. That's why it is so important to find a middle way, to determine the amount of cars, which can be smoothly removed. And it will increase effectiveness of JSC Russian Railways and will not cause a stir at the transport market.
Moreover seasonal character of railway transport should be considered. Therefore it is necessary to calculate a required fleet of freight cars which will cover the seasonality and prevent acute summer price increase for the services provided by operating companies.
And finally calculation of excess car fleet must be made for each type of rolling stock, because different types affect the load on infrastructure to a different extent.
For now this calculating and subsequent reduction of the freight car fleet is rather a distant prospect, but measures to reduce losses must be taken immediately. JSC Russian Railways in accordance with the principles of the Unified Network Transport Process, the project of which is being widely discussed , suggested that the operators organize layover of freight cars at the parts of stations allotted for empty cars. There is a list of these stations (1293 stations with 2182 tracks with capacity of 135 thousands cars) defined by JSC Russian Railways showing rates for layover at these stations. This will help JSC Russian Railways , operating companies and freight owners to avoid substantial losses because of the failures in transportation process which may be caused by uncoordinated movement of empty cars.
As for the new freight cars, which are being purchased by the car owners and operators in the amount of 7 thousand monthly, they should be attributed to the non-public railroads. And the owner of siding has to possess the required capacity for placing cars. Such measures may also attract investments in the development of non-public railroads. As a last resort ban on registration of new car numbers (unless the car is an innovative one) might be introduced.
Introduction of such principles of management of car fleet can be realized only by making changes in the transport legislation, because at this moment JSC Russian Railroads has no possibilities to influence on admission of new cars on public infrastructure and to oblige operators to place cars on pay layover. Solving the problem of network congestion by unclaimed cars will definitely have a positive impact on all participants of the transport market , because it will lead to the increase of reliability, quality, competitiveness and economic efficiency of rail transport in Russia.
List of references
1. Аникеева-Науменко Л.О. Методы повышения эффективности использования вагонов грузового парка на железнодорожном транспорте Исследование эффективности использования приватного подвижного состава транспортной компанией - Автореф. дис. на соиск. уч. степ. к.э.н. - М., 2014. - 24 с.
2. Горбунов А.А. Компании-операторы и предприятия железнодорожного комплекса: моделирование взаимодействия управленческих ресурсов. - Автореферат дисс. на соиск. уч. степ. к.т.н. – МИИТ, 2004.
3. Куренков П.В. Поиск оптимизации количества вагонов различных собственников на инфраструктуре ОАО «РЖД» // Материалы Международной научно-практической конференции «Эффективное управление вагонным парком в условиях множественности операторов на основе ЕСТП и тарифного регулирования».- М.- 28.02.2013 г.
