Russian Railways (RZD) plans to launch a trade-in program to renew the fleet of freight cars. This was announced by Mikhail Glazkov, Deputy General Director of RZD.
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The trade-in mechanism implies that operators will be able to receive a discount on the purchase of new gondola cars in the amount of 350 to 500 thousand rubles if they write off two old cars 4-5 years before the end of their service life. It is expected that the state will subsidize wagon-building enterprises for the production of modern wagons with increased load (25 tons per axle) instead of obsolete models. This initiative is already being discussed in the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
As of April 1, the fleet of freight cars in Russia amounted to almost 1.4 million units. In 2025, it is expected that the arrival of new wagons (17.2 thousand) will almost double the retirement of old ones (7.1 thousand), which will lead to a surplus, especially for gondola cars and tank cars.
There is a reduction in the fleet for popular platforms. The surplus rolling stock for April is estimated at 295 thousand wagons. This negatively affects the financial performance of transportation.
The introduction of the trade-in program can accelerate the renewal of the fleet, support the workload of wagon-building enterprises and increase the efficiency of transportation. However, experts warn that the benefit for operators will depend on economic calculations. The subsidy is less than 10% of the cost of a new wagon, and wagons that could work for several more years will have to be written off.
RZD had already raised the issue of trade-in in 2015 and 2020, but then the initiative did not find support. It was then proposed to provide a discount of 1.5 million rubles for the surrender of three old wagons. The possibility of introducing a recycling fee on wagons was also discussed.
Earlier www1.ru reported that the number of freight cars exceeds the need by 43%.
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