During the meeting, Mr Ivanov spoke in favour of reforming long-haul passenger train services, in particular because of their low profitability. "The federal budget has for years been making additional payments to compensate the railways' profit shortfalls," Mr Ivanov said.
He pointed out that state regulation of the price of tickets for economy class and open-plan carriages had been introduced to ensure the general availability of railway services. "Another set of problems having a negative effect on passenger transportation profitability is directly connected to the depreciation of fixed assets and obsolescence of the rolling stock and railway infrastructure, as well as the use of obsolete technology for passenger transportation," Mr Ivanov said. In view of this, railway tickets often cost as much as aircraft tickets.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that Russian Railways (RZD) and the Ministry of Transport were setting up a Federal Passenger Company, an RZD subsidiary for long-haul passenger transportation. However, the establishment of a new company and transfer of assets to its balance will not change the situation, Mr Ivanov said. "Our efforts will be justified only if the new company uses fundamentally new approaches to the management of the long-haul passenger transportation system," he said.
Mr Ivanov said that the task was to ensure financial and operating transparency of the new company, introduce modern mechanisms of corporate governance, and use cutting-edge transport infrastructure technology.