Petersburg State Transport University DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUTER AND LONG-DISTANCE PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN RUSSIA

Abstract The article provides a description of the current state of railway passenger traffic in Russia, the tendencies of its development in terms of restructuring of JSC „Russian Railways‟. Taking into account the problems, which have been identified, the ways for increasing the economic efficiency of commuter services have been offered. Keywords: commuter and long-distance passenger traffic, passenger companies, the market for passenger transport, cooperation, an average and critical index of coaches‟ occupancy. 1 Introduction Rail passenger services are of great importance in the development of our country and its regions, especially when taken into account the size of the territory and the main directions of passenger traffic. Russia occupies a leading position in the world in terms of volume indicators of passenger traffic: by the number of passengers transported, and the passenger turnover is on the 4th place. Russia‟s share in global passenger traffic of railways is more than 8% (World Bank, 2012). The development of passenger traffic in Russia takes place in the circumstances of the continuing restructuring of the railway sector. Structural reform of rail transport, which began in 2001, has been accompanied by the fundamental changes in the management of passenger services that should be considered for the development of a competitive market in the transport services. The paper deals with aspects of deregulation of passenger transport. As well, it describes the characteristics of the current state of passenger sector, and the tendencies of its further development. The changes related to the organization of passenger transport in the most important directions of the country are provided in details. In accord with the characteristics of the passenger rail sector in Russia, the economic justification for the choice of transport mode for the commuter traffic at some directions has been considered in the paper. In conclusion, the measures to improve service quality and attractiveness of rail transport in the organization of urban and regional passenger transport have been given.