Deregulation of the Russian railway freight market - learning from empirical results

Abstract

Railway transport has confronted various changes during the last decades. Although the trend of deregulation spread worldwide in 1990s, Russia belongs to countries which have not totally liberalised market. Russian railway market has developed significantly since 2001 and today there are almost 2,000 companies offering railway services. However, the traction market's deregulation process is still incomplete. The market is confronting notable changes during the coming years. This research's main objective is to evaluate the progression of deregulation in the Russian railway freight market, highlight the confronted market entry barriers and reveal the national peculiarities. Research findings strengthen former knowledge and fortifies the Russian railway freight market has many national characteristics. As the main traits was noted importance of personal relations and close linkage with politics. Although market has many operators, undertakings are mainly leasing companies providing rolling stock for their customers. When considering the barriers to entry, as main hindering factors were regarded rolling stock, bureaucracy and needed capital. These follow the same path which has been noted in previous studies; Although Russian railway freight market has strong national peculiarities, the barriers to entry are the same like in Europe.