Russia complains about sharp drop in rail freight traffic due to sanctions
Illustrative photo: Russia has complained about a sharp drop in rail freight traffic (Getty Images)
For the third year in a row, the Russian railroad has seen a decline in freight traffic. This is likely due to sanctions against Russia, The Moscow Times reports.
According to the agency, in November, the load on Russian Railways' networks fell by 5.8% year-on-year to 95.6 million tons, and the cumulative total for 10 months was 4.4%.
The Russian railroad is currently experiencing the deepest failure in the last 16 years since the 2008-09 crisis. In particular, 11 of the 15 positions tracked by the company in its statistics are in the red. For example, the transportation of the main cargo of Russian Railways, coal, which accounts for about a third of all transportation, decreased by 6.2%. This happened after coal miners faced a plummet in exports and were forced to cut production to the lowest level since the 2020 pandemic.
At the same time, ferrous metal transportation decreased by 9.9%. However, timber transportation, which fell by 14.2% in 2023, decreased by another 1.7%. Construction cargo decreased by 14.4%, cement by 4.7%, grain by 3.3%, chemicals by 2.9%, and oil and oil products by 1.1%.
Another problem at Russian Railways is the decline in the average sectional speed of trains - in the first half of the year, it fell to a 12-year low of 36.5 km/h. And in some months, it fell below 35 km/h, the lowest since 1991.
Sanctions against Russia
The United Kingdom imposed sanctions against the Russian Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces and their chief, Igor Kirillov, over allegations of chemical weapons use in Ukraine.
For the first time, the sanctions also include vessels of the Russian shadow fleet, which, according to the British authorities, help to circumvent Western restrictions on oil exports. The list includes 11 vessels, including Zatoka Amurskaya and SCF Pechora, which transport Russian oil to third countries.
