President of Russian Railways and UIC Chairman Vladimir Yakunin took part in the XXX Conference of General Directors of the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD).
The XXX Conference of Directors (authorised representatives) of the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) took place on 24 April in Prague. The delegation from Russian Railways was headed by the company’s President Vladimir Yakunin.
The participants discussed OSJD’s results for 2014 and plans for 2015 and subsequent years. One important topic of the meeting is the preparation of international railway standards. This work is being carried out by the OSJD and the International Union of Railways (UIC): currently, a draft joint standard for the size of rolling stock is being prepared.
Commenting on the issue of cooperation between the OSJD and the UIC, Mr Yakunin, who is Chairman of the UIC as well as President of Russian Railways, noted the following:
“The most important thing is that the leaders of the OSJD and UIC have managed to achieve a format that allows you to see some positive solutions, in particular, on payments for passenger transport. Today we have ensured that we have a unified CIM/SMGS system; we have been working on this in Russia as well.”
In continuing the development of cooperation between the OSJD and UIC, it was decided at the meeting by majority vote to establish a joint working group of the OSJD and UIC to develop international railway standards.
Russian Railways specialists take an active part in the activities of the working bodies of the OSJD. The improvement of basic agreements and contracts is being carried out with account for ongoing reforms in the railway transport of OSJD-member countries. Today Russian Railways is the leading railway with regard to having the most developed fields in the framework of the committees and working groups of the OSJD.
The participation of Russian Railways in the activities of the OSJD is an essential tool for the development of transit traffic through Eurasia and the integration of Russian rail into the global transport market.
The Organisation for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) is an international intergovernmental organisation. It was established in 1956 and is now made up of 28 countries in Europe and Asia on railroads that have a unified international law: Azerbaijan, Albania, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, North Korea, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Estonia.
In addition, German (DB AG), French (SNCF), Greek (OSE), Finnish (VR), and Serbian (Serbian Railways) railways; Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railways (GySEV); and the Federal Passenger Company (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) participate as observers in the OSJD.
In 2005, by order of the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation no. 13, Russian Railways was mandated as a member CGD (Conference of Directors General).
OSJD activities are carried out in five commissions: transport policy, transport law, freight and passenger transport, infrastructure, and rolling stock, as well as two permanent working groups on financial and settlement issues and coding and computer science.
(Source: RZD)