The following carriers are responsible for long-haul rail passenger transportation: Federal Passenger Company, Grand Service Express TC, Tverskoy Express, TransClassService, Sakhalin Passenger Company, and High-Speed Transportation Directorate (branch of Russian Railways).

The share of long-haul transportation services provided by Russian Railways’ subsidiaries was as high as 94.7% of passenger turnover. Trains made up by Federal Passenger Company accounted for 94.4% of total passenger turnover, with another 0.3% attributable to trains made up by other subsidiaries and affiliates of Russian Railways. Russian Railways accounts for 4% of passenger turnover, while the share of independent carriers stands at 1.3%.

In 2018, Russian Railways saw a long-haul passenger turnover of 96.3 bn pkm, up 5.7% y-o-y. Passenger traffic increased by 7.9% to 110.3 million.

Federal Passenger Company’s performance

• 33.6 bn pkm, or up 19.5% y-o-y in the deregulated segment,
• 54.1 bn pkm, or down 1% y-o-y in the regulated segment.

The reporting year saw the number of passengers transported by day long-haul trainsDay trains are scheduled to complete its journey during daylight hours and comprised mostly of coach cars. increase by 23% to as many as 15 million. The day service is popular with passengers due to convenient departure and arrival time, deployment of innovative rolling stock, shorter travel time and lower cost compared to air and road transport.

In 2018, Federal Passenger Company’s income from core operations amounted to RUB 226.1 bn (up 4.6%), including RUB 202.4 bn from passenger transportation (up 4.5%). This was due to a 5.3% y-o-y increase in transportation volumes across the Company.

International transportation

In 2018, 6.79 million passengers were transported in the international segment, down 4.8% y-o-y.

Passenger traffic between Russia and CIS and Baltic states decreased by 5.4% y-o-y to 5.79 million people, with the number of passengers transported to and from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Estonia going up by 18.5%, 6.1%, and 0.7%, respectively. Uzbekistan and Moldova railway routes saw the largest decline in passenger traffic (by 18.1% and 1.6%, respectively).

In 2018, passenger traffic to non-CIS countries fell by 0.6% y-o-y to 701,600 people. The number of passengers travelling to and from Finland, Germany and Italy rose by 0.5%, 3.6% and 14.4%, respectively, while a decline was seen across the routes between Russia and North Korea (19.7%), China (7.9%), Poland (17.5%), Czech Republic (23.3%), Austria (54.2%) and France (23.1%).

High-speed passenger transportation

High-speed transportation services are provided by Federal Passenger Company and High-Speed Transportation Directorate (branch of Russian Railways).

In 2018, high-speed and ultra high-speed passenger turnover grew by 19.9% y-o-y to 7.3 bn pkm. The number of passengers transported by high-speed and ultra high-speed trains amounted to 15.6 million, up 25.8% against the previous year.

In 2018, double Sapsan trainsets launched in August 2014 continued to run from Moscow to St Petersburg. On 30 April, they transported a record high of 20,787 passengers per day. The reporting year saw Sapsan trains carry some 5.15 million passengers (up 2.8% y-o-y).

In 2018, 29 pairs of high-speed trains made up by Federal Passenger Company ran along 11 routes. High-speed Lastochka trains transported some 6.8 million passengers (up 42% y-o-y), which is 7% of total volumes transported by trains of Federal Passenger Company.