The Shies railway station will function as a stop for passengers again

The Shies railway station in Arkhangelsk Oblast, near which it was planned to build a landfill, will begin operating for passengers again from September 21. Acting Governor Alexander Tsybulsky announced this on his Instagram.

"The station at Shies is to open in 14 days exactly. The relevant document has already been signed by the directory of Roszheldor — order No. 360 of September 7. I thank Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Dietrich for the promptest solution of the issue which was agreed with the residents of the Lensky District at a recent meeting," Tsybulsky said.

The acting governor of Arkhangelsk Oblast announced the plans on resuming passenger stops at the Shies railway station during a meeting with eco-activists from the protest camp. In June 2019, Russian Railways stopped selling tickets to the station: it was transferred from the passenger station to the technical one and trains no longer stopped there. The company explained this decision by the lack of demand.

The Moscow — Vorkuta train was the only transport by which people could get to the tent camp of opponents of the landfill construction. On February 6, 2020, the Commercial Court of the Komi Republic upheld the refusal of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Komi Republic to initiate an administrative case against Russian Railways.

Land reclamation began in the area where it was planned to build a landfill soon after the authorities of Moscow excluded Shies from its territorial waste management scheme for the next 10 years. Igor Orlov, the governor of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the proponent of the landfill project, resigned on April 2, 2020. Alexander Tsybulsky, the acting governor, opposed the waste placement at Shies. On June 9, the authorities of Arkhangelsk Oblast dissolved the agreement with Technopark.

The construction of a landfill at station Shies on the border of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic began in the summer of 2018 without permits. Residents of the two regions organized a powerful protest campaign: they regularly held rallies and pickets in the cities and set a tent camp with a 24-hour duty at the station itself.

Original