Rabinovich Mikhail Daniilovich. The carriages backfired

The change of the head of Russian Railways from Vladimir Yakunin to Oleg Belozerov did not affect the work patterns of the state-owned company. Thus, the company still prefers to enter into contracts for government orders with the same suppliers, which are interconnected.

The KPMG company analyzed the activities of the Federal Passenger Company (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) and came to the conclusion that about 80% of contracts for servicing FPC cars were concluded with a single supplier. In some contracts, auditors identified signs of fictitiousness.

For example, the FPC contract with Transremcom dated April 30, 2014 did not indicate the location of the work, the specification of electrical systems and devices with which the cars should be equipped.

According to auditors, in the period from 2013 to 2015, groups of interconnected companies controlled 70% of FPC’s material costs.

The contractors FPK Vagon-Service and Vagonremmash are related to each other. Through a chain of persons, these companies are connected with Andrei and Oksana Severilov, who are connected with Mikhail Rabinovich, a member of the board of directors of FPC subsidiaries - Russian Railways Tour and Travel Tour, as well as with Konstantin Filatov, a member of the board of directors of RTK, another “subsidiaries” of FPC, Vedomosti reports.

Mikhail Rabinovich, in turn, is associated with the ex-head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin. In 2006, Mr. Rabinovich was the general director of CJSC Industry Center for the Introduction of New Equipment and Technologies (OCV), which is 43.43% owned by Russian Railways.

In 2015 alone, OCV received more than 8 billion from the railway monopoly under government contracts. In 2016–2017, the company received contracts worth 1.9 billion rubles.

As the auditors note, OCV under contracts took over the service and maintenance of innovative products and systems used by Russian Railways.

General Director of Infoline Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov noted that government contracts were transferred on a non-alternative basis to OCV, and not to the organizations that directly carried out the development, production and installation.

Another recipient of Russian Railways contracts, the Vagon-Service company, through ZhSA, owns 75% of Vagonremmash. Vagon-Service itself is 44% owned by the Cypriot Midlake Holdings, which owns 99% the management company VGS Group. Until 2011, VGS Group was fully owned by Oksana Severilova, who until September 2012 owned the Davinci holding company, which is now 80% owned by Mikhail Rabinovich and 20% by Andrey Severilov.

According to KPMG, in 2013–2015, companies associated with Rabinovich received contracts worth 37 billion rubles from FPC. In addition, many contracts provide for indexation of the cost of the contractor’s work, which led to an increase in the cost of work by 10%.

FPC and Russian Railways do not comment on information about purchases under government contracts from the same suppliers.

Passenger transportation by rail is an unprofitable business, Russian Railways has repeatedly warned about this. Nevertheless, after the start of the natural monopoly reform, private companies began to enter the elite segment of this market.

Around midnight, a respectable public appears at the Leningradsky station. Men in expensive coats and ladies in furs intend to travel along the Moscow-St. Petersburg route by the Grand Express train. The train, compared to those on neighboring platforms, is a bit short, with only 14 cars. On the outside, the carriages are standard and no different from others. But inside there is luxury. The train's owner, the Grand Service Express company, calls its creation nothing less than a "hotel on wheels" in its advertising brochures. Indeed, it seems so. The coupes are twice the size of standard ones, unlocked and locked with individual key cards, and feature soft carpets and mahogany interiors. Shower rooms, terry robes. Instead of ordinary shelves, there are sofas that fold out to almost one and a half meters. TVs, DVDs, Wi-Fi. Prices are appropriate. The cheapest ticket - for a first class carriage - costs 3.4 thousand rubles on a normal day. The most expensive is in the Grand de Luxe compartment (ten meters long, with heated floors and a hairdryer in the shower room) - 16 thousand rubles. On New Year's Eve, you can go to St. Petersburg on the Grand Express for at least 4,900 rubles, in the Grand de Luxe for 21,500. “Our prices are absolutely the same as in the corresponding Red Arrow carriages.” We don’t have economy class cars at all, but “Red Arrow” has them,” says Oleg Kaverin, general director of “Grand Service Express”.
"Grand Express" was launched in May 2005, at that time it was the only private train on the Russian market. The company does not disclose the composition of the shareholders, but market participants claim that the main shareholder of the company is the owner of the Zircon-Service car-building plant, Mikhail Rabinovich. When launching the train, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Igor Levitin, handed the driver a symbolic key and cut the ribbon, as if welcoming the pioneers of the market to the Grand Express. The public is tuned in to the rapid development of the private passenger transportation sector. However, to date there are only two private trains in Russia. The second one - from the Tverskoy Express company - appeared in October of this year, also on the Moscow-St. Petersburg branch, but occupied a different sector - tickets for it cost from 1.5 thousand to 3 thousand rubles. The shareholders of Tverskoy Express are also quite close to the structures of Russian Railways - these are the main suppliers of rolling stock and locomotive stock of Russian Railways, Tverskoy Freight Car Building Plant and Transmashholding. In addition to the two trains, there are three more private electric trains. Two of them run on the same Moscow-St. Petersburg route (from the Passenger Transportation company, owned by Severstaltrans, and from the Paritet refrigeration company), the third on the Moscow-Kaluga route, it was acquired and launched by a forwarding company "Transgroup AS" Meanwhile, another three dozen private companies have received licenses for passenger transportation, although they have not yet been able to launch their projects.

The travails of the reformers

"Grand Express" is designed for passengers with big appetites

Problems with entering the passenger transportation market are due to the fact that this process has not yet been fully formalized by law. And this is not least due to the fact that Russian Railways itself does not yet have a clear vision of how this segment should develop.
“Any company can enter the passenger transportation market, since the reform of Russian Railways presupposes equal access to the railway infrastructure,” says Igor Plotnikov, deputy head of the public relations department of Russian Railways. According to the official version, the main condition for becoming an operator of this market is the presence of your own rolling stock - leasing Russian Railways cars is not encouraged, since Russian Railways itself does not have enough of them. The interaction scheme is as follows: a businessman comes to Russian Railways, declares his intentions, and if the decision is positive, he is allocated a line of the schedule. After this, four contracts are concluded with him: for dispatch support, for locomotive traction (locomotives cannot be privately owned for now), for the provision of utilities in the home parks and for the ticket sales system - this system has not yet been demonopolized.
In reality, of course, everything is much more complicated. “Why should Russian Railways allow private business into the most profitable sectors of passenger transportation?” says Leonid Komarov, deputy director of marketing of the Federal Passenger Inspectorate (FPI, the body responsible for passenger transportation in the new structure of Russian Railways). “Last year, passenger transportation brought Russian Railways losses in amounting to 27 billion. The only profitable sectors of this market are the “golden lines” (among them Moscow - St. Petersburg), the deregulated sector (coupe and SV), tourism (lounge cars, tourist trains), giving these directions to business, we. thereby increasing the state’s losses.” Unlike freight transportation, where private business has already surpassed Russian Railways in total volume, passenger transportation can only boast of four projects. For each of them, the management of Russian Railways made individual decisions, but there is no single package of regulatory documents for the admission of private passenger transport to the railway.
“Russian Railways and the state have not decided on private carriers,” says Gennady Venediktov, general director of the Okdail company. “So far, the company is arbitrarily deciding who to let on this route and who not. Until there is a clear legislative framework for the functioning of the private passenger transportation market "It's pointless to make strategic plans." Oakdale, however, is making such plans. Two years ago, the company announced its intention to launch the Baltic Express train and even decided to finance the purchase of cars.

The Eurosib company planned to create the First Passenger Company - in the summer of 2006 it was supposed to launch a high-speed double-decker electric train on the same (Moscow-St. Petersburg) route. Here even more difficulties arose: in addition to the usual approvals, certification of imported carriage stock was required. The project is currently frozen.
“It is quite possible that Russian Railways creates administrative barriers for independent carriers to enter the market,” says Oleg Kaverin from Grand Service Express. “But our positive experience in servicing luxury cars as part of the branded trains “Red Arrow” and “Tatarstan” as well as a fundamentally new type of service and perfect service offered to passengers, played a decisive role in the launch of the joint project “Grand Express”.

Transportation is not so scary

The annual losses of Russian Railways (27 billion rubles) on passenger transportation could scare off private traders, but there are no inexperienced neophytes in this market. “Before launching our own train, we outsourced to Russian Railways for three years - we were engaged in charter transportation, and since 2003 we have been servicing luxury cars on two branded trains,” says Oleg Kaverin. “We needed to develop technologies, understand where the weak points are traditional services in order to improve the quality of our services. We cannot take it by volume of transportation - there are no such financial opportunities, but we can take it by quality." Now the company is thinking about improving the service, serving the client “from doorstep to doorstep”: along with ordering a ticket, the company is ready to provide a taxi in Moscow and St. Petersburg, any special meals on board the train, hotel reservations, and additional services.
The project, according to its managers, is profitable: its cost, taking into account leasing payments and interest payments on loans, will be 1.2 billion rubles, the planned payback period is six years.
“Our calculations show that the traditional approach to the formation of trains can lead to a shortfall of 15 to 40% of income,” says Gennady Venediktov from Okdile. “In order not to lose money, you need to not skimp on marketing at the start of the project, form a train according to the optimal scheme, and in principle, passenger transportation can bring very good results."
Even in such a traditionally unprofitable direction as commuter trains, the profitability of passenger transportation can be tens of percent. This became obvious after Russian Railways began creating joint suburban passenger companies with regional administrations. In those regions where the administrations took a businesslike approach to the matter, companies began to make a profit literally the next year after their creation - for example, the Omsk-Prigorod, Novosibirsk-Prigorod and some others companies. This required only the installation of turnstile lines to combat free riders and the introduction of a more flexible approach to train schedules and composition. The Transgroup AS company, which was once created by the then Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksenenko, was also convinced that electric trains can be profitable. Now, in addition to its Moscow-Kaluga train, within two years the company wants to launch branded trains Moscow-St. Petersburg, Moscow-Tver, Moscow-Kryukovo (Zelenograd), as well as participate in the formation of suburban passenger companies in the regions and in the organization intermodal transportation Moscow - Sheremetyevo Airport (as in the direction Paveletsky Station - Domodedovo).
The Passenger Transportation company, part of Severstaltrans, is not making big plans yet; it wants to wait for a new price list for passenger transportation.
The executive director of the Tverskoy Express company, Alexander Chubarev, claims that the operating profit from operating the Megapolis train is 80%, but the payback period for his project is significantly longer than that of the Grand Express - until 2014. “We are very pleased with our performance,” he says. “The train has been running for only a month and a half, and immediately reached 74% load. Even despite the fact that two days out of the first month our platform at the Leningradsky station was being repaired and we were sent from Kievsky.” As of December 6, the company plans to launch a second train so that Megapolis departs not every other day, but every day. And next year, Tverskoy Express will add another train on this route, and will also launch the Moscow-Samara, Moscow-Kazan and Moscow-Helsinki routes. “Of course, we have the opportunity to provide a quality of service higher than on Russian Railways trains,” says Alexander Chubarev. “We take personnel, so to speak, from the street, we train them in our own educational centers. We prefer to hire young people. Moreover, having only one train ", we are very responsive to the wishes of our clients. Our carriages also have showers, there are facilities for moving disabled people, and there are sockets for connecting laptops. Feedback from the first month was very warm."
“If we had such shareholders, we would launch ten trains a year,” Oleg Kaverin envies. However, without changing shareholders, Grand Express still expects to launch another train from Moscow in a year (in 2008), but it has not yet been decided which of the million-plus cities it will go to.

Nobody wanted to give

Meanwhile, Russian Railways is also increasing its presence in the profitable segment of passenger transportation. This applies to both the branded train segment and the tourist destination. To work with tourists, Russian Railways has created a special division “RZD-tour”. This company intends to provide services for organizing individual and collective trips on the railways of Russia and beyond. "RZD-tour" has at its disposal 15 branded Russian Railways trains, lounge cars (in addition this year, Russian Railways has already purchased 15 such cars), conference cars, a bar car and restaurant cars, even a church car, recently built at the Moscow Plant named after Voitovich. In addition, the company plans to build new tourist trains. RZD Tour's ambitions are great: the company has already signed an exclusive agreement with the international operator Orient Express on the sale of 19 train tours of this operator in Russia, and is preparing similar agreements with other foreign companies. “We assume that already in 2007 we will be able to make the first project based on Russian Railways rolling stock to serve VIP clients on jointly developed routes. At the same time, we will need to work on such areas of tourism that are completely new on the market, which no one else offers ", said the company's development director Valery Gendelev.
However, Russian Railways is still not able to provide high-quality service to the entire growing elite segment on its own, so the number of private companies working in these areas outsourced to Russian Railways is increasing from year to year. This is best felt by factories specializing in the production of elite cars and special-purpose cars: Zircon-Service, the Voitovich Plant, this segment has grown at the Tver Carriage Works. At these enterprises we were told that these cars are purchased not only by Russian Railways, but also by private structures. “We feel the demand for luxury and tourist transportation by rail is growing. Now it is almost close to the level of the early 1990s,” says Gennady Venediktov. This creates the basis for cooperation with Russian Railways to service their charters and encourages private companies to acquire their own carriages for transporting tourists.
So far, Oakdile provides services to passengers of four trains - Nikolaevsky Express, ER-200, Aurora, and Nevsky Express. In addition, Oakdile owns several luxury cars, which it attaches to regularly running trains. This year, the fleet of Okdail saloon cars amounted to 10 units, and the volume of cooperation with Russian Railways in servicing VIP transportation has increased significantly. For example, Okdail opened its own service centers to serve wealthy passengers - four at train stations in St. Petersburg, four in other cities (Moscow, Veliky Novgorod, Bologoe, Ostashkov). Service companies like Oakdile are now appearing in Eastern and Western Siberia, the Caucasus and the European part. Although most of them are still on the “golden line” Moscow-St. Petersburg. The Lokotrans company is engaged in transportation on leased and own elite carriages. There is also the Transline company, which organizes meals for passengers on long-distance trains (including on the St. Petersburg-Helsinki line), inter-trip maintenance of passenger cars in depots, and cleaning of train depots and depots. In addition, it rents 28 dining cars and five buffet cars, servicing 14 trains, three of which are on the route favored by private travelers - Smena, Krasnaya Strela and Aurora. The Dal Express company operates on three roads - Oktyabrskaya, Moskovskaya and Krasnoyarsk, providing services for passengers along the route.
Of course, most service companies are waiting for the resolution of legal issues regarding their admission to the private passenger transportation market. Let us recall that the first participant in this market, the Grand Service Express company, also began with outsourcing. “To gain experience for your own business,” the company now explains.
EKATERINA DRANKINA

The Council of Ministers issued two resolutions regarding the claim of the Russian company Parallel.UK against the Republic of Belarus. In both cases, the details of the case are not disclosed. TUT.BY tried to understand this mysterious story.

It is known that the claim is in the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Four lawyers from the Revera law office have been entrusted with defending the interests of the Belarusian government. This is all the valuable information contained in the documents of the Council of Ministers.

The government press service declined to comment because these decisions are “for a limited circle of people.” The International Commercial Arbitration Court does not disclose information about the case. A representative of Parallel.UK did not respond to the request. One of Revera's representatives declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege.

Two informed sources told TUT.BY that the case concerns “divorce proceedings” at the Osipovichi Carriage Works (OVZ).

Let us recall that this company was created in 2008 on the basis of a car repair depot in Osipovichi. Its shareholders were the Belarusian Railway (BelZhD) (26% of shares) and the Russian company Grand Express (74%). The design capacity of the Osipovichi plant was supposed to reach 2.5 thousand freight cars and 2 thousand tank containers per year. In 2011, an 8-year loan from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) in the amount of $63.5 million was attracted for the construction of a new plant. But in 2015, Western sanctions against Russia, a drop in cargo transportation and, accordingly, demand for railcars, and increased competition from Chinese railcar manufacturers hit production in Belarus hard. It practically stopped. The Belarusian authorities believed that the Russian shareholder was to blame. Grand Express had claims against BelZhD and the Belarusian government regarding the fulfillment of their obligations to purchase cars.

In the second half of 2015, OVZ made a number of delays in paying the principal amount and interest on the EDB loan. As a result, the Ministry of Finance of Belarus had to pay off the obligations, under whose guarantees the loan was raised. The EDB press service confirmed to TUT.BY that the debt repayment was made by the Ministry of Finance of Belarus in full on June 1, 2016 in accordance with accepted obligations. The bank “has no financial claims against the government of Belarus under the concluded agreement on the provision of a bank guarantee.”

Next, the Belarusian government submitted HIA claims to cover the costs. The bailiff conducted an auction, as a result of which all the liquid property of the plant was acquired by the Mogilev branch of BelZhD. The plant workers moved to the Osipovichi Transport Engineering Plant. This situation caused the Russian “Grand Express”. “Thousands of items of various property, from real estate to unique machines, were assessed in the shortest possible time. Several large railcar-building companies, ready to purchase a modern railcar-building complex at market value and return it to full-fledged activity, were unable to take part in the hastily organized auction,” the dissatisfaction of the general director of Grand Express Olga Donik. It was not possible to contact a representative of Grand Express.

Attempts by the Russian company to reach out to the Belarusian authorities and regain some of its assets did not bring results. Therefore, they had to go to court.

As of March 2017, OVZ’s list of creditors included 39 business entities, and the plant’s total debt to them was over 240.8 million denominated rubles. At the same time, the plant’s liabilities were 177 times greater than accounts receivable and ten times the value of its assets.

At the end of 2016, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered the EDB to recover overdue debt from OVZ totaling more than $2.5 million.

According to TUT.BY, the main claims are made by Mikhail Rabinovich and his partners. Rabinovich was a co-founder of Grand Express CJSC, and he had good relations with the former head of Russian Railways OJSC Vladimir Yakunin.

The legal company Parallel.UK also became a creditor of OVZ after it bought out the debts of one of the Russian banks, the anti-crisis manager of the bankrupt plant confirmed to TUT.BY Nikolay Shevkunov.

“The total liabilities to [Rabinovich’s] group amounted to about $10 million. But they turned on the meter and counted interest, penalties and other things. As a result, the debts soared to $100 million,” said an interlocutor familiar with the progress of the case.

Founder of Parallel. YUK" is the general director of the company Andrey Vladimirovich Severilov, as follows from the register of legal entities of the Russian Federation. A person with the same full name. is a shareholder of the Russian Loko-Bank, like Mikhail Rabinovich. According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the paths of Severilov and Rabinovich intersect in several other companies.

Rabinovich’s partner in HVZ was Andrei Kushnarev, who was the head of the Grand Express representative office in Belarus. In November 2015, the Eurasian Development Bank sold at a discount to Parallel.UK the debts of Kushnarev, who acted as guarantor for the OVZ loan and the payment of half the interest, it follows from court materials. In August 2017, the Odintsovo City Court of the Moscow Region decided to collect a penalty from Kushnarev in favor of Parallel.UK for failure to fulfill the obligation to pay half of the interest under the loan agreement and for violating payment terms in the amount of about $2 million. According to TUT.BY, the debts have not yet been repaid. Meanwhile, Kushnarev’s trace has completely disappeared.

In March of this year, OVZ was declared bankrupt and liquidation proceedings were initiated against it. Auctions are currently being held to sell property worth 7 million rubles. There are just over three months left before the liquidation ends.

— Co-owner and Acting Chairman of the Board of Loco-Bank

"News"

The annual net profit of Loko-Bank according to IFRS amounted to 2.3 billion rubles

Loko-Bank published annual consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS. Thus, in 2017, a pre-tax profit of 2.8 billion rubles and a net profit of 2.3 billion were received, the bank’s release stated.

Net interest income increased by 8% to 5 billion rubles, net commission income - by 42.7% to 2.1 billion. Net income from transactions with financial instruments measured at fair value, including available financial assets for sale amounted to 0.7 billion rubles compared to 0.6 billion a year earlier.

FAS: the court found Loko-Bank's advertising improper

IFC sells 15% stake in Loko-Bank

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which owns 15% of Loco-Bank, is withdrawing from its capital, a person close to the credit institution told Vedomosti, and a representative of Loco-Bank confirmed. According to him, IFC is leaving the bank's shareholders, the deal will close in May of this year.

On Tuesday, April 19, an extraordinary meeting of Loko-Bank shareholders was held, which approved the transaction for the bank to acquire 276,737 of its shares from I.D. Safeguard Cyprus Limited. “This is a technical company that is purchasing about 8.9% of the bank’s shares from IFC, then these securities will be purchased by the bank itself,” explained a representative of the credit institution.

Irina Grigorieva was appointed first deputy chairman of the board of Loko-Bank

The Board of Directors of Loko-Bank appointed Irina Grigorieva to the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Board. This is reported in the materials of the credit institution. Notification of the appointment will be sent to the Central Bank.

In October 2014, Grigorieva was appointed deputy chairman of the board and included in the bank's board of directors.

Irina Grigorieva’s total experience in the financial sector exceeds ten years. As Deputy Chairman of the Board, she oversees the development of retail business, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

Loko-Bank placed exchange-traded bonds for 3 billion rubles

54.06% of the share capital is currently owned by five Cypriot companies, the ultimate owners of which control the following stakes in Loko-Bank: Stanislav Boguslavsky (19.99%), Vladimir Davydik (19.99%), Mikhail Rabinovich (13.30% ), Andrey Kulikov (13.19%). 15% and 11.06% are owned by portfolio investors - International Finance Corporation (IFC) and East Capital Financials Fund AB, respectively.
link: http://www.nalogi.ru/news/portal/1613189/

Loko-Bank introduces a real estate lending program on the secondary market

Loko-Bank is a “strong middle peasant” in the Moscow region with foreign participation. Operating since 1994. The main areas of business are lending to corporate clients, in particular medium and small businesses, attracting deposits from individuals, and working with securities. The ultimate owners control the following stakes in Loko-Bank: the family of Stanislav Boguslavsky (19.99%), Vladimir Davydik (15.2%), Mikhail Rabinovich (13.30%), spouses Andrey and Olga Kulikov (13.19%), Viktor Davydik (4.75%), Leonid Strunin and Leonid Fridlyand (3.23% each). 15% and 11.06% are owned by portfolio investors - International Finance Corporation (IFC) and East Capital Financials Fund AB, respectively.
link: http://credit-lines.ru/loko-bank

Loko-Bank opened a new office in St. Petersburg

CJSC Commercial Bank Loko-Bank is a progressively developing bank with the participation of foreign capital. Operating since 1994. The main areas of activity are lending to legal entities, in particular representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, servicing accounts of corporate clients, and working with securities. The ultimate owners control the following blocks of shares: Stanislav Boguslavsky - 19.99%, Vladimir Davydik - 19.99%, Mikhail Rabinovich - 13.30%, Andrey Kulikov - 13.19%. 15% and 11.06% are owned by portfolio investors - International Finance Corporation (IFC) and East Capital Financials Fund AB, respectively.
link: http://www.regblok.ru/index. php?new_div_id=4200

Vios Holdings Limited became the new shareholder of Loko-Bank

Glasom Investments Limited sold 6.5% of its shares in Loko-Bank to Vios Holdings Limited. This is stated in a message from the banking press service. The beneficial owner of Vios Holdings Limited is Russian businessman Mikhail Rabinovich, who is also a co-owner of TK Grand Service Express CJSC and a number of other companies specializing in the supply of high-tech equipment for railway transport.
link: http://www.banki.ru/news/lenta/?id=1618143

The new shareholder of LOCKO-Bank - 6.5% of shares were sold to VIOS HOLDINGS LIMITED.

On December 14, 2009, 6.5% of the shares of LOCKO-Bank were sold by GLEYSOM INVESTMENTS LIMITED to VIOS HOLDINGS LIMITED. The beneficial owner of VIOS HOLDINGS LIMITED is Russian businessman Mr. Rabinovich Mikhail Danilovich, who is also a co-owner of CJSC TK Grand Service Express and a number of other companies specializing in the supply of high-tech equipment for railway transport.
link:

A group of top managers of JSC Russian Railways, employees of industry universities and JSC Industry Implementation Center were awarded for the development of new technologies for driving passenger and freight trains based on intelligent systems for driving and traffic safety management.

1. GAPANOVICH Valentin Alexandrovich, Vice-President of JSC Russian Railways, head of work;

2. BARANOV Leonid Avramovich, Moscow State University of Transport, Head of the Department of “Management and Informatics in Technical Systems”, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor;

3. BUSHNENKO Yuri Viktorovich, Ph.D., leading researcher at the All-Russian Research Institute of Railway Transport;

4. DONSKOY Alexander Lvovich, Deputy General Director of CJSC “Industry Center for the Introduction of New Equipment and Technologies”;

5. EMELYANENKOVA Elena Lvovna, Ph.D., Deputy General Director of JSC "OTsV";

6. KOBZEV Sergey Alekseevich, head of the locomotive department of JSC Russian Railways;

7. MUGINSTEIN Lev Alexandrovich, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the “Complex Department of Train Traction and Saving of Fuel and Energy Resources” of VNIIZhT;

8. NIKIFOROVA Nina Borisovna, Ph.D., Head of the Laboratory of Microprocessor Control Systems for Electric Rolling Stock, VNIIZhT;

9. RABINOVICH Mikhail Danilovich, General Director of JSC "OTsV";

10. STAROSTENKO Vladimir Ivanovich, head of the Moscow Railway - a branch of JSC Russian Railways.

Valentin Gapanovich:

– The company’s innovative development strategy includes the development and implementation of high-tech technologies, among which automotive engineering occupies one of the first places. Now locomotive and carriage manufacturers are creating a new range of equipment that will make it possible to more effectively solve transportation problems and provide more opportunities to take advantage of automated train driving. That is, there is a positive feedback – the means determine the technique and vice versa. The new technology, through the use of automatic steering, provides the effect of reducing energy costs for traction of trains and, in addition, helps to streamline the relevant regulatory framework.

Vladimir Starostenko:

– The intensity of traffic in a number of directions has reached its highest levels, and in these conditions, the accuracy, reliability and safety of meeting the schedule is of paramount importance. This is the most important property that autoguidance has. It can automatically ensure schedule execution with an accuracy of 30 seconds. It is also important that in case of possible deviations from the schedule, automatic guidance automatically compensates for them with unconditional compliance with traffic safety requirements, preventing overload of traction equipment, longitudinal dynamic forces in the train, passenger comfort, etc. In conditions of high-intensity traffic, the driver’s work becomes extremely stressful. The developed new locomotive automation, by relieving the driver, reduces his fatigue by at least a third and increases the reliability of his control activity by an order of magnitude, thereby realizing the positive aspects of the human factor.

Mikhail Rabinovich:

– The work performed is largely distinguished by its novelty and originality. Its successful completion was the basis for the development of automation of other locomotive equipment - traction, braking, the basis for the creation of an automatic diagnostic system, etc. However, we cannot stop there. Based on the experience gained in managing complex projects, solving new problems will require the development of an Industry Implementation Center.

Lev Muginshtein:

– In the work performed, the equipment and technologies of tomorrow, which seemed unattainable, were used for the needs of today. The results obtained are consistent with this. A driver has been created whose artificial intelligence is almost as good as that of a real driver, and in some cases even surpasses it. Having received a task for a trip, the driver knows exactly how to drive the train exactly on schedule, with minimal energy consumption for traction while ensuring a safe level of longitudinal dynamic forces in the train. If the initial task changes for any reason, the driver takes it into account in real time and accurately executes it. I would like to emphasize that behind the apparent simplicity of the system’s actions there are very deep, internationally recognized scientific results.