Siderordromophilia, Or Mad about Trains
Railroads are more than just rails and trains. They are the more than one million people of the Russian Railways Co., who, from the signalman to the president, help thousands of people and tons of cargo every year get where they need to be. All manner of things happen in an organization of that magnitude.
The Story of the Engines That Could
On the morning of May 25, the power went out in Moscow. At 11:10, 55 substations and 120 electric signal boxes went dead on the Russian Railways, stranding 37 passenger trains, 700 commuter trains and 125 freight trains. “What's going on??!!” an elderly relative of mine screamed over her cell phone from a commuter train. “When are we going to go? They're not telling us anything…”
I was unable to do anything for her. But, a few hours later, after Auntie had successfully made it to the station, I spoke with First Vice President of Russian Railways Khasyan Zyabirov. “We immediately towed the stopped trains into their stations with diesel locomotives,” he recounted. “The entire fleet of the railway was mobilized, about 500 engines, while usually no more than 150 are in use for maneuvering. We could only take care of the passenger trains. The freight trains had to be left for the moment, even though some of them contained perishable or dangerous freight. There were serious delays on the commuter and passenger trains. Commuter trains were pulled two at a time. Passenger trains were towed to stations where there was electricity and the reconnected to electric locomotives. The Gorkovskoe, Paveletskoe and Rizhskoe lines were converted to diesel locomotives. All free station personnel and diesel conductors, including trainers, were put on round-the-clock alert. Arrivals and departures were announced on the public address system. In the dark station, such as Paveletsky, reserve diesel generators were turned on. There is power and ticket sales continue.” Rail crossings and signals were done by hand, the old fashioned way.
There were no accidents or injuries on the railroad. The railway management assured me that they could have continued working in that manner all day and longer.
The Story of the Three Presidents
This spring, I received a call from a member of the presidential administration whose name was unknown to me. He said that he was responsible for the railroads and complained that I had “not entirely inadequately portrayed the state policy in that sector” in my articles, where I allegedly hinted that the board of directors of Russian Railways (which is made up exclusively of state officials) was not controlling the functioning of the company. Honestly, I had no such intentions, but I became interested. “Isn't that so?” I asked. “It's so,” he answered with a sigh, “but we're working on it and will soon correct the situation.”
In June, president of Russian Railways Gennady Fadeev, who loudly criticized the board of directors of the company and other government figures for their apathy toward his problems, was promoted to the honorary position of assistant to the prime minister. I have never seen just a grand sendoff. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov led it personally. Real tear appeared in the eyes of railroad employees and officials as the speeches were read. Fadeev was a real railroad legend.
The new president, Vladimir Yakunin, started on a different footing with officialdom. After he was in office two weeks, a leak occurred about the difficult financial strait of the company, for which 1 percent of the country works for. That information quickly received official confirmation. Three problems were solved as a result. First, Yakunin was off to a bad start, compared to which he could easily claim future successes. Second, the unreality of the Economics Ministry's forecasts, by which the railroad's budget was determined, was publicly recorded. Finally, the railroad was given an excuse to refuse unprofitable projects, the development of new cars, for example.
The government responded to this new management approach with slight confusion and month and a half delay in appointing a new board of directors. They said that the delay was due to disagreements over whether or not to appoint Fadeev to the board, a move that Yakunin approved of. Finally, Russian President Vladimir Putin settled the issue by inviting the two men to his residence for a chat.
The Story of One Little Boy
Also in June, two trains left Kursk Station for Simferopol, a Ukrainian express at 15:23 and a Russian local half an hour later. There are no special children's trains on international routes, so two groups of schoolchildren in the ordinary trains. The Russian train was already outside the city when it was discovered that there was an extra child, an orphan from another city, in the group on it. And he his ticket was for the other train. According to the rules, he should have been taking off the train at the border and sent back to Moscow. Dengi economic weekly editor Olga Eremenko, who was in the car with her son, called me in the car where I was riding with my daughter around 11:00 in the evening. There was nothing any of them could do. Everyone, including the train personnel was worried about what would become of the little boy.
I was able to connect with a railway official, who assured me that the little boy would be well taken care of on his way back to Moscow. Try as he did, he could not do any more than that. I was not satisfied. Although he might have helped with the Russian border control, there was still the Ukrainian side to worry about.
The Ukrainian train, on which there was much concern about the missing boy, was rapidly approaching the border and there was no way to contact it. Then my railroad connection called. “Tell the boy to be ready to change trains at the border and not to be afraid,” he said. The Ukrainian train was stopped in front of the border waiting when we got there. It made up for the delay on its way through Ukraine.
by
Renata Yambaeva, editor of the Railroad Business Guide
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 13, 2005
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