Work on Electrifying Railway Approaches to the Seaport of Ust-Luga has been Completed

During a meeting between President of JSC Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov and participants of the freight-rail transportation market, a special teleconference was held with the Luzhskaya station and the West Siberian Railway, where the main cargo flow starts in the direction to the port of Ust-Luga.

The president of JSC Russian Railways noted that the electrification project for approaches to the port has continued since 2011. In this time, more than 700 km of contact network has been built and reconstructed. More than 150 km of the second tracks have been introduced, 11 stations have been reconstructed, and the Luzhskaya predeparture and modern sorting station has been built.

“This will allow us to increase the volume of cargo transshipment by more than 11 million t per year and shorten the time it takes to deliver cargo on the Kuzbass–Luzhskaya test range by 12 hours. Everyone will benefit from this, including JSC Russian Railways. The economic effect for us after the electrification of the site will be 450.3 million rubles a year. Today we will put it into operation together,” said the head of the company.

Head of the West Siberian Railway Anatoly Reger noted during the teleconference that a cargo route from Kuzbass to the ports of the northwest is in great demand among shippers from Kuzbass. Every day, about 20 convoys with coal are dispatched, 75% of which go to the port of Ust-Luga.

“Completion of the electrification of the Veymarn–Luzhskaya section already allows us to increase capacity by one-third. Now, on the whole route from Siberia to the northwest—almost 4000 km—we will organize the movement of electric trains,” said Vladimir Goloskokov, head of the Oktyabrskaya Railway.

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Works on the reconstruction of railway approaches to the commercial seaport of Ust-Luga with the development of the Ust-Luga railway junction were carried out as part of the complex reconstruction project for the Mga–Gatchina–Veymarn–Ivangorod section. The need for the timely development of transport infrastructure in Ust-Luga was dictated by the commissioning of terminals and sites for the new trading seaport, which requires the prompt and orderly delivery of goods.

The completion of electrification will make it possible to cease using diesel locomotives in these areas, which in turn will have a tangible technological effect, including a reduction in operating costs and an increase in traffic speeds and throughput. At the same time, a significant reduction in the delivery time for cargo at the Kuzbass–Luga region is expected.

To date, the railway junction is the single Luzhskaya station, which includes a sorting hill, a locomotive service station, a recreation center for locomotive brigades, and other buildings and structures. To serve the large number of cargo terminals of the port and related organizations, Luzhskaya–Severnaya, Luzhskaya–Yuzhnaya, and Luga–Neftyanaya parks have also been built.

One of the achievements in the new complex is the introduction of technology for thrusting and dissolving convoys using automatic locomotives without engineers (in fully automatic mode), which is the first such experience in Russia. In September 2017, the share of work in this mode was 97.6%.

During the construction of the Ust-Luga railway junction, modern technological solutions in the spheres of saving resources, train safety, more automatic technologies, and electronic document management—incorporating a number of innovative solutions from domestic and foreign developers—were applied. When the port of Ust-Luga will be at full capacity, more than 3500 wagons per day will unload at Luzhskaya station.

The total investment in electrification amounted to more than 30 billion rubles.