Photo: TASS

Without waiting for decisions on tariff compensation, Russian Railways' subsidiaries are launching canceled electric trains in the regions in advance. On Thursday, 40 trains out of 300 canceled in the regions resumed their routes.

Russian railways have begun to restore suburban services; about 40 electric trains were launched yesterday, Russian Railways reported. In total, the suburban subsidiaries of the monopolies plan to return about 300 commuter trains to the schedule.

These are almost all the trains that have been canceled since the beginning of the year due to disagreements with regional authorities, a Russian Railways representative told RBC. They will arrive within a week, he promises. He does not name the conditions under which traffic will resume. The company is proceeding from government decisions that will be made on this issue, says a Russian Railways representative.

The day before, Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the government, sharply criticized the inaction of officials who allowed mass cancellations of electric trains. “Electric trains have stopped running to the regions, have you gone crazy?” – the President addressed the ministers. Suburban traffic needs to be restored without waiting for formal decisions, Putin concluded.

During the closed part of the meeting, the topic of canceled trains continued, Putin demanded in harsh terms that this problem be immediately dealt with, one of its participants told RBC. Most of the criticism, he said, went to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and presidential adviser Igor Levitin, who oversee transport infrastructure.

The order was carried out. Regions on Thursday began to report on the restoration of suburban rail service. The government of the Pskov region received a telegram from the North-Western Suburban Passenger Company informing that electric trains will start operating on February 6, Deputy Regional Governor Alexander Kuznetsov told RBC. The Russian Railways subsidiary did not disclose the conditions for the resumption of traffic, he added.

In the Nizhny Novgorod region, suburban traffic will be fully restored in the coming days, told TASS a representative of the Gorky Railway . The Perm Suburban Company is returning 15 electric trains, company director Alexander Katsur told Interfax. From February 6, trains will begin operating in the Vologda region, which was completely left without electric trains after the New Year, a representative of the Northern Suburban Company said.

Down with losses

The reform of Russian Railways, as a result of which the company’s subsidiaries took over suburban services, began in 2002. Then the Ministry of Railways, left over from Soviet times, was transformed into a state company - the Russian Railways joint-stock company.

Suburban transportation has always brought losses, the question was how to distribute them, to remove them from the balance sheet of Russian Railways, says a former high-ranking employee of the monopoly, now a top manager of the state corporation. Therefore, they decided to create suburban companies together with regional administrations, he says. According to the authors of the reform, electric trains were equal to public transport: Russian Railways and the regions took upon themselves to subsidize tariffs, relieving freight carriers of the need to pay for unprofitable transportation, recalls a former top manager of the monopoly.

But the reform dragged on. The creation of commuter passenger companies was seven years late compared to the initially stated plans - they started operating only in 2012, according to a report by the Accounting Chamber published on Wednesday. At the same time, Russian Railways, together with regional authorities, have not developed “effective measures to reduce the unprofitability of passenger transportation in suburban services.”

Electric trains for rent

As the Accounts Chamber has established, suburban passenger companies operate without key assets - rolling stock and depots. They remain on the balance sheet of Russian Railways themselves, which lease them to subsidiaries. 80% of the latter's expenses go directly to paying for the rental of electric trains, their maintenance and subleasing payments. As a result, the Accounts Chamber writes, in 2013, 19 out of 25 suburban companies were unprofitable, their total loss amounted to 6.5 billion rubles.

The governors, whose budget revenues began to fall during the crisis, were unhappy with this justification for costs. At the end of 2014, the head of the Vologda region Oleg Kuvshinnikov published a video message on the Internet to residents of the region, in which he stated that the region was not ready to “compensate for the ineffective costs of the Russian Railways subsidiary.” […] These are numbers that are not transparent to us; we do not recognize these numbers.” Kuvshinnikov noted that the concept of suburban transport services for Russian Railways “contradicts the interests of both the regions and the population.” Other governors echoed him.

Due to the fact that regions reduced compensation, in 2012–2014, suburban companies canceled 894 electric trains, the Accounts Chamber calculated. This year, for the same reason, about 300 more trains left the routes, according to Russian Railways data.

Share of regions

Indeed, electric trains are unprofitable, admits a representative of Russian Railways, although in 2014 the number of profitable suburban companies increased to 11. The losses are to blame for the regional authorities, who showed “unwillingness to develop a harmonious transport system,” Russian Railways said in a statement. The monopoly has repeatedly appealed to regional authorities, which are co-owners of suburban companies, with a proposal to increase their authorized capital. Russian Railways could contribute electric trains and depots to it, and the regions could contribute money to maintain their shares. But the constituent entities of the Federation do not have the funds for such transactions, the monopoly reported. In addition, the transfer of assets to regional companies is risky, the company emphasizes: if transportation volumes are limited due to lack of funds, the regions will be forced to make irreversible decisions to liquidate PPK rolling stock.

The property of the railways is on the balance sheet of several companies, in particular in Omsk and Vologda.

Minus VAT

As an operational measure, it is possible to reduce the VAT on suburban transportation from 18 to 10%, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich proposed at a meeting on Wednesday. This will help free up an additional approximately 4 billion rubles, says a person familiar with the details of the proposals being discussed in the government. It is possible that an even more radical decision will be made to zero out VAT, then the amount will increase to 6-8 billion rubles, he says. Consultations with all departments are ongoing, and officials should find a solution within the next few days.

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich held a meeting with the participation of representatives of Russian Railways and relevant ministries. “Arkady Dvorkovich held a meeting with the participation of representatives of Russian Railways and line ministries and departments for the financial support of suburban transport. The participants discussed the return of the coefficient of 0.01 to infrastructure instead of 0.25, a zero VAT rate, as well as other possible additional support,” Assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Aliya Samigullina told reporters (quoted by TASS ).

Over the past year, the regions had to compensate suburban companies about 15 billion rubles, but allocated only 8.7 billion rubles for this, according to Russian Railways. This year the gap has widened. Of 24 billion rubles. The regions and territories are ready to pay only 7.9 billion rubles in compensation.

Electric trains will travel in advance