Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Yakunin. I have signed a government resolution extending the period of discounted fares for students and schoolchildren on suburban rails through 2012. The government will allocate necessary funding from the federal budget in order to make these discounts available next year and compensate for revenue lost by your company. We will do this at the regional level. The resolution states clearly how the money will be allocated to the regions. Please make sure the work is done properly, as usual.
Vladimir Yakunin: Of course, Mr Putin. I should mention that I have been asked the same question by followers of my blog. Students and their parents have been worrying about whether the discounts would remain available. I suppose this resolution will be greeted with relief by our customers.
Vladimir Putin: Can you describe in general how operations are proceeding? It is the time for summer vacation. Is there an increase in passenger operations?
Vladimir Yakunin: Mr Putin, in comparison to my previous report I can say that the situation with regard to passenger transport has improved. At the federal level, there has been a 5% increase in passenger traffic. I think this is also due to good marketing strategies by the federal passenger company. In particular, we have introduced a discounted fare for upper-level beds in coupe, which is half the full fare for lower berths.
I should say that we are also trying to improve the quality of commuter lines, as I reported earlier. For example, we now charge a monthly fare of 3,500 roubles for distances greater than 53 km within the Moscow Region. This measure resulted in a 217% increase in passenger traffic and a 215% increase in profit for suburban rail operators. I believe we have chosen the right approach. As promised, if these indicators remain steady, we will propose a reduced fare in the regions where we can reach an agreement with local authorities.
Of course there are problems, and it would be excessive to say that we have resolved all of them. The fleet operating on commuter lines is worn out and operations always lack funding. However, we receive support from many governors and I hope we will be able to deal with it.
As far as cargo operations are concerned, again, we can say that everything has been going according to plan in the first six months of the year. As we planned, traffic has increased by 4%. It was not easy, but we managed to achieve this result. And I hope we will be able to fulfil the annual plan. At the same time, we are 5.6% behind pre-crisis volumes.
Vladimir Putin: But we are close.
Vladimir Yakunin: We are, definitely. It is a positive trend. As we planned and as we can judge from the economic recovery, we should reach the pre-crisis levels in 2013.
Vladimir Putin: So you will need a whole year to catch up five percent?
Vladimir Yakunin: 5.6%. This is what we can conclude from the trends, Mr Putin, from the development of our economy and from cargo volumes. Speaking of which, the second part of my report will focus on our view of the necessary infrastructure upgrade, according to your instructions. If I may, I would like to be more specific about this.
Of our most key results, I can confirm that, according to the government order, the necessary preparations are officially complete and operations between the village of Vesyoloye and Sukhumi began on June 30. We received funding in the form of an inter-governmental target loan to carry out the project. We upgraded 90 km of railways, 27 km of platform roads and 11 bridges that were seriously worn out…
Vladimir Putin: What trains will be running there?
Vladimir Yakunin: Firstly, we will launch electric and passenger trains…
Vladimir Putin: Will people going on holidays to Abkhazia be able to use these services?
Vladimir Yakunin: Of course they will. We have launched eight trailing cars for passengers who would like to continue their journey from Adler to Sukhumi. In any case, it is much better compared to how it used to be, Mr Putin. It is very well done.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Yakunin, what can you tell me about high-speed services?
Vladimir Yakunin: Mr Putin, we received a government resolution with instructions to develop the concept of high-speed services that would operate during the 2018 World Cup. As we started working on the concept, we realised that this project cannot be separated from the general government policy on the development of high-speed services. As you know, we finished the first draft of the concept in 2006. At the time, the range of high-speed service was supposed to be 7,700 km. When it was updated in 2008, the range increased to 11,000 km.
Now, considering the new requirements with regard with the 2018 World Cup, the provisional range of high-speed services increases by over 2,000 km. We divided the area into central and southern ranges. These will include specific routes. We assume the journey from one venue to another should last between two and five hours in a seating compartment. On the routes where this is not possible, we will have sleeping compartments on overnight trains so that people can rest before attending another match. We should also consider the possibility of high-speed services to and from Ukraine and Belarus. If the government supports us, we could also launch the Paris-Berlin-Warsaw-Moscow service. This idea is worth considering. According to the current procedure, we will carry out the project as a government resolution.
Vladimir Putin: Good.