The Minister of Transport noted during the meeting that the subsidization of commuter trains from freight traffic revenue had been eliminated, and that transit and infrastructure activities had also been separated. He said transport companies had been established, and the relevant regulatory documents drafted. Nevertheless, a number of issues, primarily those dealing with financial support for commuter-train traffic, have not yet been resolved.
In an effort to prevent a considerable increase in commuter-train prices, the Government has been providing state support for commuter-train traffic in the form of privileged exclusive infrastructure-services rates since 2011. At the same time, 25 billion roubles’ worth of federal budget funding has been allocated annually to compensate Russian Railways for revenue shortfalls being incurred by these exclusive rates. An assessment of the cash flow during the period under review shows that this measure is not enough to ensure the sustained operation of the commuter-train system.
Under current legislation, the Russian regions are supposed to stipulate commuter fares and rates. Furthermore, the regions will have to compensate commuter-train operators for revenue shortfalls in case of fares and rates which fail to cover operators ’costs.
However, most regions, primarily budget-funding recipients, have not been stipulating the required budget allocations for these purposes. For instance, 9.3 billion roubles’ worth of additional regional budget subsidies is required this year.
In this connection, President Vladimir Putin instructed the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Railway Transport Agency, Russian Railways and the regional authorities to sign a cooperation agreement in May 2013. The document will specify commuter-traffic terms for 2014 and the 2015-2016 planning period.
Maxim Sokolov told meeting participants that, under a Presidential Directive, the Ministry of Transport had submitted this agreement to the regions and suggested that the participants in the meeting sign this document as soon as possible.
The Minister of Transport also pointed out the need to “open “price-related cases” by the regions under current legislation in case of claims against commuter-train operators.
