Deputy Minister of Railways Sergei Grishin ordered all freight car lease agreements to be terminated by February 15 and renegotiated on a general basis. Perhaps the MPS is trying to put carriers on equal terms and deprive companies close to the former management of the department of their privileges. However, leases have ceased to be direct income for the MPS - revenues from them will go to the budget in 2002.

The telegram on the revision of lease agreements was signed by Deputy Minister of Railways Sergei Grishin on February 1, 2002. This decision is motivated by "an increase in expenses for the maintenance of freight cars and established facts of violations of the requirements of the Ministry of Railways." It was not possible to contact Grishin himself, and a representative of the Ministry of Railways explained to Vedomosti that the department is "reviewing the legacy of the previous leadership."

According to Boris Chertkov, CEO of SUAL-Transport, it is the conditions under which railcars are leased that have traditionally determined the competitiveness of transport companies. "Decisions on rental rates were made by ministry officials on an individual basis. Of course, there were excesses, and individual companies received rates below market rates," says Chertkov. According to him, the range of rates for renting a gondola car was from $3 to $15 per day. As the head of a chemical freight carrier company previously told Vedomosti, competing with operators close to the Ministry of Railways, who receive railcars from the Ministry of Railways at a price four times lower than the market price, is economically senseless.

The market price for rent, according to the director of the Association of Rolling Stock Owners, Sofia Katkova, fluctuates between $10 and $15 per day for a general-purpose railcar and between $15 and $20 per day for a tank car. According to the Ministry of Railways, 36,000 railcars out of a total fleet (MPS and private) of 460,000 units are rented. According to market participants, the MPS's income from renting railcars exceeds $100 million per year. Apparently, with the arrival of a new minister, the MPS felt that this figure could be increased by conducting an inventory of rental relations. However, according to the head of the Association of Transport Workers, Georgy Davydov, the reason for revising the "rules of the game" is different - rent has ceased to be a profitable mechanism for the MPS. Since 2002, government officials have equated the rent of railcars to the rent of state property, and the proceeds from it should go to the federal budget, not the MPS.

Participants in the railway market are wary of the MPS innovation. "You can't change the rules of the game on the market with a simple telegram," says Vladimir Prokofiev, head of the Balttransservice company. His company, considered close to the previous minister, has already been affected by the redistribution of property - on the basis of a similar telegram, the MPS unilaterally terminated locomotive lease agreements, forcing the operator to raise its rates.

Deputy Minister of Antimonopoly Policy Anatoly Golomolzin told Vedomosti that MAP intends to consider the issue of compliance of MPS actions to revise contracts with antimonopoly legislation.

However, in addition to the stick, the railway workers have also prepared a carrot for their clients. Having reviewed the lease terms, they intend to finally launch the methodology developed by MAP for calculating the investment tariff for companies that invest in capital repairs of wagons and the purchase of new rolling stock.

Carriers have been made equal