The Board of Russian Railways held a meeting at head office to discuss the results of the Company’s locomotive operations during the first half of 2012.

“We regularly raise questions about the state of affairs in the locomotive complex and see how much still remains to be done. We are developing techniques that enable a more efficient use of locomotives and locomotive crews. This is leading to positive results. During the first half of 2012, the Traction Directorate met key performance indicators,” said Vladimir Yakunin, the Chairman of the Board and President of Russian Railways.

According to Yakunin, in January-June 2012 the amount of freight carried by the Traction Directorate amounted to 2,044 billion ton-km gross, 4.2% more than in the same period in 2011.

By implementing a range of measures, the Company achieved fuel and energy savings in train traction amounting to 151.9 million kWh worth 332.7 million roubles in electric traction and 820 tons of diesel fuel worth 20 million roubles in steam traction.

The use of regenerative braking on electric locomotives returned 680.1 million kWh of electricity to the network.

As noted at the board meeting, in 2012 Russian Railways will purchase 532 locomotives at a total cost of 51.9 billion roubles. During the period from 2008 to 2011, the Company acquired 1,656 new locomotives worth a total of 113 billion roubles for use on its own railway network.

In addition, during the first half of 2012, 850 units of traction rolling stock were overhauled at a cost of 6 billion roubles.

In order to change the existing method of developing and manufacturing new locomotives, production plants are implementing a new model for servicing locomotives which provides for maintenance and repair over the full technological and production cycle.

As of 1 July 2012, 4,984 locomotives have been transferred to 53 operational service depots in accordance with contracts with TMKh Service and STM Service.

“We understand that the traction complex needs modernising and serious investment. We will continue this work,” said Vladimir Yakunin.