The draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law The Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law on Railway Transport in the Russian Federation was drafted by the Ministry of Transport.

The draft law proposes making amendments to the federal law The Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation and the federal law on Railway Transport in the Russian Federation with the aim of improving market mechanisms in this area.

The importance of the proposed legislative amendments is motivated by the need to improve the legal regulation of relations between the parties in railway transport for the purpose of improving the efficiency of rail transport.

The proposed changes will make it possible to implement one of the main tasks of railway transport: to ensure the timely and uninterrupted supply of the transport needs of the economy.

1. Currently, the federal law The Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation has no provisions obliging the owners of railway carriages to pay for using general-purpose rail tracks in excess of standard deadlines. In this way general-purpose tracks turn into free parking facilities where empty carriages can remain indefinitely while their operator waits for a more profitable consignment.

When the infrastructure is occupied by carriages not involved in the transport process, this serves to create artificial shortages of freight capacity and “bottlenecks.”

The draft law proposes stipulating payments for the use of the general-purpose infrastructure in excess of standard deadlines, as well as more stringent responsibility of railway-transport service users for the prompt removal of empty carriages from general-purpose tracks after unloading.

These provisions will encourage the parties involved in the transport process to make more efficient use of the potential of the infrastructure and rolling stock.

2. In addition, the document proposes resolving the issue of cooperation between railway companies that have been selected as the sole executor in charge of military-traffic projects, railway rolling stock operators, container operators, the owners of general-purpose railway transport infrastructure, the owners of special-purpose railway tracks, as well as other private individuals and legal entities regardless of their organisational and legal forms or forms of ownership, who own or otherwise control railway rolling stock and containers during the transfer of railway rolling stock and containers.

For instance, the draft law states that under a Government decision, railway rolling stock and containers can be confiscated from carriers, operators and other owners for any period of time if the socio-economic stability, defence capability or security of the Russian Federation is threatened, or when the Russian Federation faces other threats, as well as in other cases specified in the national legislation.

3. The draft law proposes amendments to the federal law On Railway Transport in the Russian Federation which would update the definition of “railway rolling stock operator,” taking account of the current practice of the operators of railway rolling stock.

This change is motivated by the fact that a services market to allocate railway rolling stock for freight-traffic purposes was created during the implementation of the Programme for Structural Reform of Railway Transport, which was approved by Government Resolution No. 384 of May 17, 2001.

In reality, the lack of clear regulations governing the activity of operators and requirements for operators makes it impossible to clearly demarcate professional operators in this market and owners of railway carriages who are not actually involved in the transport process, and whose activity often boils down to leasing out their carriages.

On the whole, the approval of amendments being proposed by the draft law will make it possible to create mechanisms for improving the railway transport process and for adapting this process to the changed system of relations in the railway transport, which will enable the most sensitive issues of the industry to be resolved.

The draft law will be considered at a Government meeting.