{"id":296614,"date":"2026-02-18T02:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296614\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:16:13","slug":"russia-to-hike-cargo-rates-to-support-rail-monopoly-amid-mounting-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296614\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia to Hike Cargo Rates to Support Rail Monopoly Amid Mounting Losses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Russian government will raise freight tariffs on Russian Railways (RZhD) by 1% from March 1, a move aimed at shoring up the company as it struggles with falling traffic and mounting debt.<\/p>\n<p>The state-owned rail operator has grappled with a sharp decline cargo volumes in recent years, with the company losing 14% of freight shipments since\u00a0the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>RZhD has accumulated 4 trillion rubles ($52 billion) in debt and recorded its first net loss since the pandemic last year.<\/p>\n<p>The government order, signed Monday by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, introduces a \u201craising coefficient\u201d for all shippers, described as necessary \u201cto fund measures compensating expenses related to ensuring transport security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\tnews<br \/>\n\t\t<a data-id=\"in-article-block\" class=\"related-article__inner\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/02\/18\/russia-eyes-rescue-plan-for-debt-laden-rail-monopoly\" title=\"Russia Eyes Rescue Plan for Debt-Laden Rail Monopoly\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tRussia Eyes Rescue Plan for Debt-Laden Rail Monopoly<br \/>\n\t\t\tRead more<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>RZhD <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/12\/01\/rzhd-poprosili-200-milliardov-rublei-izbyudzheta-chtobi-zakrit-diru-vfinansah-a181471\" title=\"requested\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">requested<\/a> 200 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) in urgent support from the National Wealth Fund late last year to cover financial shortfalls and debt obligations, but the Finance Ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-02-11\/russian-firms-scramble-for-state-aid-from-budget-strained-by-war\" title=\"allocated\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">allocated<\/a> only 65 billion rubles ($845 million).<\/p>\n<p>Sergei Aleksashenko, a senior fellow at the NEST Center in London, called RZhD \u201ceffectively bankrupt\u201d and said it cannot get out of its debt without outside support.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters calculations show the tariff increase is expected to generate 22.3 billion rubles ($290 million) in additional revenue for RZhD.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which reported a net loss of 4.4 billion rubles ($57 million) in the first nine months of 2025, sent some employees on unpaid leave and <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/10\/17\/rzhd-zapuskayut-volnu-uvolnenii-iz-za-kollapsa-gruzoperevozok-i-problem-v-byudzhete-a177589\" title=\"started\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">started<\/a> laying off staff in October.<\/p>\n<p>RZhD plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/12\/29\/rzhd-pustyat-pod-nozh-rashodi-navagoni-ilokomotivi-iz-za-ubitkov-idolgov-a183925\" title=\"cut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cut<\/a> its investment program by a quarter this year to balance finances.<\/p>\n<p>Spending on construction and procurement of wagons and locomotives will fall to 713.6 billion rubles ($9.3 billion) from 890.9 billion ($11.6 billion) last year and 1.5 trillion ($19.5 billion) in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The government is also preparing a broader aid package worth 1.3 trillion rubles ($16.9 billion) that includes debt restructuring and asset sales.<\/p>\n<p>RZhD has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/finance\/russia-orders-russian-railways-sell-24-billion-moscow-towers-pay-debts-three-2025-12-18\/\" title=\"ordered\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ordered<\/a> to sell a 62-story skyscraper in Moscow\u2019s Moscow City business district that it purchased in 2024 for 193.1 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), as well as the Rizhsky Station building in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ru.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/02\/16\/fakticheski-obankrotilis-pravitelstvo-ekstrenno-povishaet-zheleznodorozhnie-tarifi-chtobi-spasti-rzhd-a187409\" title=\"Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times&#039; Russian service.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times&#8217; Russian service.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A Message from The Moscow Times:<\/p>\n<p>Dear readers,<\/p>\n<p>We are facing unprecedented challenges. 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For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/page\/privacy-policy\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"privacy policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Russian government will raise freight tariffs on Russian Railways (RZhD) by 1% from March 1, a move&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46,150289,47201],"class_list":{"0":"post-296614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-mishustin","13":"tag-russian-railways"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}