New generation railcars as a tool to boost freight transportation effectiveness

Dmitry Losev, Deputy CEO for Technological Development at United Wagon Company (UWC), presented a report on the topic of “New generation railcars as a tool to boost freight transportation effectiveness” at a joint meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Commission on Transportation and Transport Infrastructure and the RSPP Commission on Machine Manufacturing.

In the course of his speech, Dmitry Losev noted that the development of rail transportation requires the close cooperation of all the participants of the transportation process: infrastructure, car builders, freight owners, operators and representatives of the repair segment. Only an integrated approach will allow the achievement of high-standard results.

Over the past few years, railcar building plants under the auspices of RZD have made a significant contribution to the development of the industry. This is primarily attributed to the mass production of cars with an increased axle load of 25 tf. More than 100,000 new generation railcars from different manufacturers are currently operating in the network. Such cars significantly differ from their analogues on 18-100 bogies in their increased carrying capacity, increased body volume and service life, and extended overhaul period. These as well as other technical and operational advantages make it possible to reduce the cost of transporting a tonne of cargo; reduce the time and costs of shunting operations to uncouple cars from a train and send them for repairs, and reduce the cost of the car life cycle.

According to RZD statistics, UWC's new generation railcars are sent for routine uncoupling repairs up to five times less often than their analogues on 18-100 bogies. Thus, in 2017, Tikhvin cars' average mileage before uncoupling for repairs amounted to almost 240,000 km, compared with 46,000 km for old generation cars. The maximum operating period without repairs for a UWC’s car exceeded 680,000 km. Dmitry Losev noted that this car is still in operation. Such results are achieved primarily due to the increased reliability of the bogie components.

In concluding his speech, Dmitry Losev emphasised that replacing the old fleet with new generation railcars will make it possible to bring the operations of the network to an entirely new level and give impetus to the development of the industry.