The III International Regional Rail Business Forum “1520 Strategic Partnership: Baltic Region” took place on 17–18 October in Riga. More than 300 delegates representing 150 companies in 15 countries took part in it.

The organiser of the event was Business Dialogue, the general international partner was Russian Railways, and the general partner was Latvian Railway.

Representatives of national railway companies and private operators, freight owners, equipment manufacturers, financiers and politicians came together in Riga to create strategically significant guidelines for cooperation between the 1520 and 1435 areas – and today the opinion of each one of them is especially important.

Andris Bērziņš, President of the Latvian Republic, Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, and Uģis Magonis, president of Latvian Railways, brought greetings to the participants at the opening ceremony.

Andris Bērziņš noted in his welcoming speech that “this is a very important time for Latvia, as for the whole of the Baltic region. After 150 years of railway operations we find ourselves facing the need to select our future strategy and development options. Addressing this issue is a professional issue, and the politicians have to provide the environment in which this can be done successfully. A lack of coordination in the railway business can be very costly – this is reflected in the title of our forum, which assumes harmonisation of the two systems’ operations. I am sure that your experience will enable us to choose the best way forward, for each of us individually and for all of us together!” In conclusion the President of Latvia wished the forum participants successful work, and fruitful cooperation in the future.

Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, emphasised that “it is important for railway operators to have political support, and the fact that the President of Latvia has found time to speak here is an honour for us and creates the context for productive work as part of the third business forum.”

Uģis Magonis focused particularly on the importance of developing rail transport. “The role of rail transport in our world is growing. Today we are observing a move away from air and sea transport and into rail transport. The Baltic region’s experience is significant in the development of new transport corridors linking the 1520 and 1435 areas,” said the President of Latvian Railway.

The most important issues related to the development of the transport and logistics systems of the Baltic region, including the EU transport policy “White Paper”; modernisation of the infrastructure in order to increase the quality of the transport process; unified rules for transport in the interests of business in the 1520 and 1435 areas, and priorities in the development of the East-West and North-South transport corridors, were discussed during the plenary session entitled “The Baltic Region: partnership between business in the 1520 and 1435 areas”, in which Uģis Magonis acted as moderator. He noted the growing role of railways in the freight and passenger transport business. The new strategic guidelines set out in the European Union’s transport policy “White Paper” stipulate that by 2030, 30% of the total volume of road freight transport should be transferred to rail and sea transport, which, as Uģis Magonis said, “places a great responsibility on us.”

Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, pointed out that “we are all well aware of why we are meeting. We are united by something significantly greater than just the 1520 gauge standard – we are a single railway system. Russian Railways has recently demonstrated a steady growth in transport, and today about 60% of the freight handled by Latvian Railway is travelling either from Russia or through Russia.

At the end of the plenary session Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, Uģis Magonis, president of Latvian Railway, Stasys Dailydka, director general of Lithuanian Railways, and Kaido Simmermann, chairman of management board of Estonian Railways, answered questions from journalists.

The heads of the railways of Russia and the Baltic region countries expressed their general opinion that there is no sense in investing resources in developing projects that could become an impossible burden in financial terms and a barrier to the development of other projects, and therefore new routes should not be created without taking into account the interests of freight owners, freight consignors and freight recipients.

A discussion entitled “Technological and operational compatibility as a factor in the growth of the rail business” took place on the same day. The participants discussed the opportunities for coordinating efforts in modernising the existing railway infrastructure and building a new one, increasing route speeds and volumes of freight transport, synchronising traffic management and security systems, and a range of other important aspects of cooperation between the railways of the 1520 and 1435 systems. The high rates of socio-economic development in the countries of the Baltic region make it possible to describe it as a growth area. The Baltic region, located at the intersection of trade routes and acting as the European frontier for the “1520 area”, is of enormous interest to all “broad gauge” partners. Cooperation between railway lines should develop in a synchronised manner on all fronts, which means there is a need to ensure the timely harmonisation of law and the rail transport management system.

The central event on 18 October, the second day of the forum, was the international business dialogue entitled “Containerised freight – the future of multimodal transport through the Baltic region”.This discussed the key development trends in the containerised transport market, the advantages and economic benefits of the Baltic Transit container train and the prospects for restoring the Moscow–Riga specialised container train route, the principles of transit price-setting and the legal and regulatory framework for container transport. Salman Babayev, senior vice-president of Russian Railways, emphasised that Russian Railways considers it necessary to retain a shareholding in TransContainer in order to develop the company as a key player as part of creating a transit transport logistics operator. According to Babayev, TransContainer is due to play a key role as part of creating an international logistics operator for transit transport.

The subject of rail freight transport was developed at around table entitled “Transport logistics in the Baltic region: a modern service for the needs of the growing volume of freight transport”. This discussed the prospects for developing a transport and logistics network in the context of the irreversible growth of containerisation, efficient tools for optimising logistics and minimising the costs of freight transport, and plans for flexible tariffs in order to simplify freight transport conditions and generate new clients.

“Freight transport defines the level of a state’s economy, but passenger transport is a social aspect of the economy, reflecting the society’s standard of living. In addition, passenger traffic depends not only on the rolling stock and infrastructure but also on the passengers’ requirements,” said Oleg Dyachenko, deputy editor-in-chief of RZD-Partner, the moderator of the event, at an open round table entitled “Passenger corridors: the current level and potential for development”.

In the context of active competition with air and bus transport, railway operators also have to address the issues of reducing train journey times. The significance of fast traffic has been growing in the European market in recent years, creating definite competition with air transport on distances between 2,000 and 2,500 km. The main thing here, however, is not to overdo it. As Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin said, quoting a German colleague, “Nothing that covers the ground at speeds of more than 250 kph pays its way.”

Juris Azers, head of the transit and export control division of the Customs Directorate in the State Revenue Service of the Latvian Republic, and Dagnis Sudrabs, head of the customs documentation methodology division in that department, spoke about work on improving cooperation between customs and border services. In addition, the participants in the round table entitled “Railways and sea ports: cooperation and collective responsibility” discussed the prospects for increasing capacity through systems for remote production of goods, tools for developing measures to simplify the terms for transit transport, and systems for electronic data exchange between the consignor, the transport company and the customs service.

Speaking about the prospects for partnership between the 1520 and 1435 areas, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin emphasised, “We are witness to colossal changes which are shaking the global economic system today. And railways, as part of the economic system of their national states and at the same time as part of the global community of railways, are directly experiencing in themselves all the signs of both positive and negative changes. A slump in the economy causes problems with reducing freight turnover, and an economic recovery in turn helps to revive freight transport. The Prime Minister of Russia once said, If you want to now the state of the Russian economy, ask for the reports on daily freight levels which come across the president’s desk every day. The development of regional and inter-regional railway cooperation is of great significance, and at a difficult economic time it becomes particularly meaningful in every way.”