Russian Railways asks to privatize the stations

The Directorate of Railway Stations of Russian Railways asked the government to remove restrictions on the privatization of the stations in order to attract tens of billions of rubles for their modernization. According to Vedomosti, this issue was discussed at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. According to the head of the Directorate of Railway Stations Sergey Abramov, this is necessary to attract private investors to modernize existing stations. In exchange for financing the reconstruction, the investor could receive ownership of the part of the station areas used for commercial purposes, to accommodate shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels. Those parts of the station that are used to serve passengers will remain in the ownership of the directorate, Abramov explained.

The minutes of the meeting said that this issue must be worked out on the basis of decision -making practice, and this actually means that the Russian Railways request will be refused. At the same time, the government apparatus has nothing against the proposal of Russian Railways, the source said. Even if the government does not meet this issue, the directorate will offer investors another model - trust management of the station. Such a model is already working at the Kursk station.

The directorate plans to reconstruct near 2015 almost 400 stations transferred to her in large cities. A year ago, Abramov estimated the cost of this project at 30 billion rubles, of which no more than 30 percent was supposed to provide Russian Railways, the rest was supposed to be attracted from external sources - regional budgets and from private investors.

Back in 2003, President Vladimir Putin eliminated the railways and property of railway transport from the list of objects prohibited for privatization. In accordance with the decree, from the list of facilities and enterprises that are in federal property, the privatization of which is prohibited, railways, as well as the objects and property of railway transport, directly participating in the transportation process and emergency and emergency operations were excluded.