International Activities

International services

FPC provides direct and transit passenger services to and from 23 European and Asian countries: Germany, France, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Monaco, Italy, Finland, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Abkhazia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan.

Between January and March 2020, due to the threat of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Russian and foreign governments started imposing national epidemiological safety measures, with resulting restrictions on passenger services depending on the COVID-19 situation.

On 27 March 2020, the Russian Government suspended all international rail passenger services (Order No. 763-r dated 27 March 2020).

In order to improve summer recreation opportunities for people in Russia, the emergency response centre for preventing the import and spread of the novel coronavirus infection in Russia chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova decided to restore rail passenger services with Abkhazia.

Between 7 and 15 August 2020, train services were fully restored to the 2019/2020 schedule. Also, a new tourist train No. 927/928 Sochi was added to the Tuapse—Gagra—Tuapse route, carrying a total of 19,200 passengers between 15 August and 31 December 2020.

In 2020, international passenger traffic totalled 1.2 million passengers, or 19 % of the 2019 level.

Cooperation within international organisations

FPC cooperation with foreign partners in 2020 focused on sharing best practices in organising passenger services during the pandemic and on potential procedures for restoring international rail passenger services after restrictions are fully or partially lifted.

These activities were supported by international trade organisations and supranational organisations (OSJD, CRT, UIC, EECOSJD — International Organisation for Cooperation of Railways; CRT — Council for Rail Transport of the Commonwealth Member States and the Baltic states; UIC — International Union of Railways; EEC — Eurasian Economic Commission.), collecting and analysing data from railway authorities and carriers. These efforts resulted in recommendations on passenger safety and restoring international rail passenger services.

Importantly, the measures taken by FPC to protect the health of its passengers and employees were exhaustive and proved effective at the height of the pandemic. Domestic experience will also be used in restoring international services.

FPC plans to restore international train services in phases, in line with demand as well as route performance in 2019.

In 2020, ongoing projects in international passenger service regulation within OSJD, CRT, CIT and UIC continued as planned using videoconferencing channels.