A work team was set up to cope with the problems of timber transportation in Sverdlovsk Region, Sverdlovsk Railways’ press service reports.

A day earlier, on July 26, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Denis Pasler’s meeting with Head of Sverdlovsk Region Railways Alexei Mironov resulted in the decision to elaborate a set of measures aimed at supporting the region’s timber industry.


303 companies use timber shipments via Sverdlovsk Railways (148 of whom are based in Sverdlovsk Region). Yet just three enterprises (Bogdanovitch Treating Plant, ZAO Fancom, and Sagra Forestry) are responsible for 70 to 150 carriages of timber a month, while 93 companies need one to four containers a month.

What is more, the current fleet of freight containers the railway company has at its disposal meets all the freight forwarding needs. However, there is a certain misbalance between the carriage-operation technology the owners of the containers use and the technological capacity of the railway infrastructure.

According to Head of Sverdlovsk Railways Alexei Mironov, the regional timber transportation system needs to be changed. It is more difficult now to find shipping partners because there is no unity among the enterprises and the shipment volumes are small.

Mironov suggested in the course of his meeting with Pasler that a tender for the road-building jobs should be coordinated before this October in order to start off the winter season of construction materials shipments as early as November, and that the possibility of switching to long-term two- or three-year contracts should be considered. He also suggested launching and using the Project Office for the counter planning of building materials shipments.

To improve on the transportation services for the regional timber industry, a work group was set up that comprises the representatives of Sverdlovsk Railways, Sverdlovsk Territorial Center for Top-Class Transport Services, the Industry & Science Ministry, the Transport & Communications Ministry, the Union of Timber Manufacturers, and Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs. The work team meetings, chaired by First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Railways Valery Fomin, will take place every Thursday.