The governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, demanded that one of the most ambitious and important infrastructure projects be taken away from Russian Railways – the Eastern Range – a system of railway tracks that Russia now so much needs to "reorient to the East." The governor is confident that Russian Railways has repeatedly thwarted the expansion of the corridors of the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainlines (BAM) (included in the Eastern Polygon), which is now suffering from the coal industry in the region, which cannot export its products. Kommersantdrew attention to the conflict.
Tsivilev speaks on behalf of the Kuzbass coal industry, which is currently in a difficult position due to the inability to export its products after the imposition of Western sanctions. Russian and regional authorities expected that supplies could be redirected to the East, primarily China, but after the embargo on Russian coal was introduced on August 10, export opportunities were sharply reduced – deliveries by sea became impossible due to sanctions, and rail transport was simply not ready to accept such volumes of deliveries.
“Due to the fact that the achievement of planned indicators for the Eastern test site is not systematically implemented, there is a proposal … to leave only the function of operation and overhaul to RZD, and transfer the construction function to the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, it has all the competencies,” the governor said during Eastern Economic Forum.
Tsivilev called for this decision to be made as soon as possible, and during the forum, Andrey Kutepov, head of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, took his side, insisting that some should be built and others should be exploited. As expected, Russian Railways itself did not agree with such assessments. Andrey Makarov, Deputy General Director of Russian Railways, who oversees the construction, said that more than 13,000 builders are involved in the expansion of BAM alone, and the project's investment program is being carried out in accordance with the schedule. He also noted that Russian Railways is forced to carry out work during the peak load period of the Eastern test site.
“To separate operation and construction on the railway, when we are building “under the wheels”, when 15 minutes after we finished straightening the switch, a train is already moving along it, is an extremely problematic story,” Makarov said, noting that in Russian Railways will be happy if someone can repeat their experience.
Problems with the Eastern range and its inability to "reorient to the East" became apparent almost immediately after the introduction of Western sanctions against Russia. International restrictions, coupled with the departure of the largest players in the transportation market from the Russian market, led to serious problems in the logistics of Russian export goods, in particular, coal, which, after the introduction of the European embargo , was actually locked inside Russia due to the impossibility of taking it out of the country by alternative routes.