Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, in speaking at the inauguration ceremony, said that the exhibition is an important milestone for the national transport sector.

The Amur Motorway, the Arctic tanker Kirill Lavrov, the Sheremetyevo Airport southern air terminal complex, Olympic transport facilities in Sochi and the Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod high-speed railway service are just a few of the projects that were presented at the exhibition, said Mr Levitin. He added: “They demonstrate that the government’s economic stimulus measures are making it possible for the transport sector to sustain its rate of development.”

The minister noted that the Transport of Russia exhibitions became not only a place for showing what has already been done. Their main objective is to determine the direction for the Russian transport system’s further development.

Mr Levitin paid special attention to the expositions put on by transport higher education institutions and universities. He said: “This year, the expositions are for the first time ever featuring the industry’s educational institutions. This once again demonstrates the link between transport education and production, as well as shows that Russian professionals are highly competitive.”

As part of the IV International Exhibition “Transport of Russia 2010,” Sheremetyevo International Airport and the Foundation for Support for the Disabled “United Land” (Fond Podderzhki Invalidov “Yedinaya Strana”) signed a Cooperation Agreement with Mr Levitin and State Duma Deputy and United Land Foundation Chairman Mikhail Terentyev in attendance.

Taking into account the important Russian and international experience, Foundation specialists together with the Sheremetyevo Airport will work out recommendations on how to improve access to air transport in Russia for the disabled. These recommendations will provide the basis for specific proposals on how to create a barrier-free environment for physically disabled passengers at Sheremetyevo Airport. These recommendations are going to be used in other Russian airports in the future.

The parties have agreed to jointly run a comprehensive study on how to create comfortable transport conditions for physically disabled passengers. In accordance with the agreement, the United Land Foundation is to provide qualified experts to analyse existing infrastructure at Sheremetyevo for making access easier for disabled people.

Moreover, the Sheremetyevo Airport presented a number of services at the Transport of Russia 2010 Exhibition for making the airport a friendly environment for disabled people. In particular, Sheremetyevo Airport demonstrated a special lift machine that assists physically disabled passengers to board the aircraft quickly and easily. There was also an original photo display called Unlimited Opportunities presented at the exhibition that showed additional services provided by Sheremetyevo Airport for the disabled.

The Sheremetyevo International Airport ensures comfort for all passengers, including the disabled. The access ways to the Sheremetyevo terminals are equipped with ramps, special parking lots, toilets and information stands. The lifts can be used for transporting physically disabled passengers. Medical rooms with about 80 staff members are open in Sheremetyevo. If necessary, passengers can pass all pre-flight formalities directly in one of the airport’s medical rooms. Sheremetyevo also provides escort and luggage transport service within the airport for physically disabled passengers.

The Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Minister Levitin present. The document was signed by the General Director of the Sheremetyevo International Airport Mikhail Vasilenko and General Director of the Vnukovo Airport Vasily Alexandrov.

The Memorandum constitutes an agreement between the parties to ensure seamless air passenger, luggage, cargo and mail service and to help maintain airlines’ uninterrupted operations from and to Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo while one of the airport’s airfields remains under construction.

During the Memorandum signing, Mr Vasilenko said: “The Memorandum signed today demonstrates that Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo have now moved to a new level of strategic partnership for developing the Russian air transport market. Our cooperation will help take advantage of opportunities of the Moscow air hub as the leading European air hub and to ensure high quality service and flight security.”

General Director of the Vnukovo Airport Mr Alexandrov, also a retired Air Force Major General and a first class military pilot, said: “Security, comfort and high quality of service for our passengers and airlines are the most important factors. I am sure that thanks to the Memorandum signed today these conditions will be met.”

The parties note that the possible transfer of flights from Vnukovo to Sheremetyevo will be temporary; following reconstruction, flights will be returned to Vnukovo. Each airline individually decides whether to temporarily transfer its flights to Sheremetyevo.

The Memorandum will have a positive impact on the two airports’ efficiency and will help to improve customer service quality in general. The parties will make every effort to announce possible schedule changes well in advance and ensure passenger comfort.

The Transport of Russia Forum was also being held along with the exhibition. The Forum hosted the Air Cargo Forum Conference, during which the prospects for developing Russian air freight were discussed.

Deputy Minister of Transport Valery Okulov said that Russian aviation’s share in global air freight turnover is quite small.

He said: “During the economic crisis, cargo transport shrunk much more than passenger transport. The same goes for general cargo and belly cargo. Since the fourth quarter of 2009, however, the cargo service sector has seen better growth. First, this has to do with more active international rather than domestic air traffic and to a greater extent the general cargo sector.”

The Deputy Minister does not think it is a problem that international orders account for the bulk of the cargo transported by Russian carriers.

“Our airlines are successfully operating in international markets by servicing two major economic centres: Southeast Asia and Europe. The transit bridge between Europe and China, Europe and Southeast Asia, where Russians have a firm footing, is a source of experience, revenue and influence,” Okulov believes.

He also said that Russian carriers should be pro-active in implementing e-freight practice, which replaces paper documentation with electronic messages, including for cargo documentation, declaration and interaction with customs authorities in the e-format and protocol, to be able to successfully compete with western airlines.

“This project gave a real competitive advantage to those airlines and airports that implemented it,” said Okulov.

The second area that will help Russian air companies to win in the global marketplace is the ground infrastructure development.

“At the moment, our airports are hardly attractive as cargo and logistics centres. Unlike passenger carriers, their cargo counterparts focus on transit airports, where the service quality is satisfactory and the prices are lower. So far, we cannot offer either,” Okulov stated.

Executive President of AirBridgeCargo and Vice-President of Volga-Dnepr Group for Strategy and Marketing, Tatyana Arslanova, highlighted the increasingly important role of air transport in the whole transport system, including in Russia, where cargo traffic is growing at a faster rate than on average worldwide (28% to 25%, respectively).

She believes that the cargo air service sector makes a considerable contribution to fulfilling Russia’s transit potential. She observed that the main advantage of air transport, i.e. cargo delivery speed (which is largely dependent on the land cargo handling and documentation) should be supported. Arslanova proposed two solutions: one is to keep on developing cargo services in the Moscow air hub; the second is to create a system of regional hubs and transfer cargo traffic there. Moreover, a cargo centre should be created in Russia that would unite all the cargo value-chain participants to promote initiatives in the air cargo transportation industry.

Under the IV International Forum “Transport of Russia”, the “Railway Transport. Infrastructure of Economic Growth” Conference was held on 18 November 2010.

Head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport Gennady Petrakov, speaking at the Conference, shared plans for large-scale railway infrastructure modernisation and development in Russia.

“The programme’s first priority is to enhance the regions transport accessibility,” said Petrakov. “The Federal Agency for Railway Transport (Roszheldor) is doing everything in its capacity to achieve the goals declared by the Russian government, particularly in investment projects,” he added.

Deputy Head of the Agency Leonid Bershansky spoke about the chief principal investment projects. In particular, he said that due to the global financial crisis, adjustments have had to be made in the Urals Industrial – Urals Polar Project in the Ural Federal District. The project should result is the creation of a unique industrial and infrastructure complex that would ensure development, modernisation and utilisation of the existing potential of the Federal District’s industrial base by developing the Sub-Polar and Polar Urals natural resources and constructing the key components of the transport and power supply infrastructure.

“Roszheldor developed a new strategy related among other things to the project financing,” said Bershansky. He added: “If, according to the previous strategy, the main scope of works should have been financed by an investment fund, then the new finance strategy includes private investors, too. If approved, this strategy will be launched in 2011.”

The Kyzyl – Kuragino railway line’s designing has been completed; the line will be constructed along with the development of mineral resources in the Republic of Tuva. A pool of construction companies interested in the project has been put together. If the project passes a state evaluation, it will start up in 2011.

According to Bershansky, construction of the Kuznetsovsky tunnel as part of the programme for reconstructing an important part of the Baikal-Amur Railway from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan has made outstanding progress. Given the current stage that the construction is at, the railway will be completed a year ahead of schedule.

Innokenty Ivanov, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, suggests considering public-private partnerships (PPP) as an effective way for developing railway infrastructure. He believes that, given its proper implementation both legally and financially, PPP will help reduce government spending, ensure high investment efficiency and apply innovative technology, including technology in infrastructure security. It will also be possible to bring in the best management practices. Another significant advantage of PPP is reduced non-core activities provided by the government.

During the discussion, Mikhail Akulov, Vice-President of Russian Railways and General Director of Federal Passenger Company, brought up environmental safety in railway transport, which is a key argument for the European Union in its making its bets on increasing railway transportation. Akulov called for exerting political will to facilitate railway development in Russia as the safest and the most convenient type of transport.

Tseren Tserenov, the Head of the Transport Department, speculated on the significance of infrastructure projects at the regional level as exemplified by the Tver region. He said that the launch of the Sapsan train that helped to bring travel time between Moscow and Tver down to an hour and 15 minutes is an example of a fundamentally new approach to transport accessibility. Since Tver considers itself as an integral part of the greater Moscow area, it also needs to develop high-speed commuter service.

Nikolai Nikiforov, the Chairman of the Russian Professional Union of Railway and Transport Construction Workers, stated that when developing infrastructure, social issues are seen as a secondary concern. In practice, they should be paid more attention to because successfully operating railway infrastructure facilities will depend on peoples’ social security and safety.