South Caucasus Railway CJSC retained positive traffic dynamics in October 2016 

ArmInfo. South Caucasus Railway (SCR) CJSC retained positive traffic dynamics in October 2016. As compared to October 2015, the traffic grew by 6.8%, SCR CEO Sergey Valko said at today's meeting when summing up the results of the company's activities for October 2016.  

Export traffic exceeded last year's indicator by 7.5% or by 2.4 thsd tons. Local traffic - as compared to the target indicator - increased by 4.8% and or 6.8 thsd tons. Import traffic - as compared to the target indicator and last year's indicator - rose by 27.3% and 25.3%, respectively.

Such qualitative indices as the average train weight, average daily mileage and the locomotive productivity also grew. The service speed reached 35.3 km/h versus the targeted 34 km/h (up 3.5% as compared to 2015), while the operating speed made up 40.9 km/h versus the targeted 39.4 km/h (up 2.8% as compared to last year's indicator).

At the end of October, the wagon turnaround made up 2.7 days versus the targeted 2.8 days.

At the same time, Sergey Valko stressed the need to improve such indicators as the standby load of a car, exploited fleet of electric locomotives, working fleet of the freight cars, consumption of electric power for hauling operations.     

As regards the schedule, he noted that over the period under review as many as 1 227 trains ran, 1 221 of which met the schedule.

Despite the reduction in train delay, Valko stressed the need to improve the efforts towards strict observance of the schedules.

Valko paid special attention to railway safety issues. He said that in October 2016 the railway appraisal rose by 9 points as compared to October 2015. 

He noted that over 35.8 thsd railway sleepers were replaced over the period under review. 

Among the priority tasks of the South Caucasus Railway, Valko pointed out the preparations for winter, implementation of programs on cost-effective use of resources, balancing of the budget revenues and expenditures, enhancement of efficiency of labor resources. Valko also stressed the significance of events aimed at implementing the potential of Armenia's transit railway to carry cargoes from Iran to European countries. 

SCR CJSC is the 100% subsidiary of Russian Railways OJSC and the concessional manager of Armenian Railways under the 13 Feb 2008 agreement, which was signed for 30 years but can be extended for 10 more years.