Plans announced recently by Russian Railways (RZD) to base tariffs on actual distances travelled, rather than the shortest distance on paper, could push up the cost of rail deliveries of crude and products. Several clauses have been added to the transport ministry’s 2009 assessment of the shortest available routes on the Oktyabrskaya Railway that serves northwest Russian ports, and the Moscow hub, which covers both the city itself and its immediate vicinity. This shortest distance was previously used to calculate the cost of deliveries to stations along these routes, even if the actual route that the train took turned out to be longer. But in future, the actual distance will be used, with RZD planning to apply the same system to as many routes as possible, as part of its push to increase revenue, according to a company spokesman. RZD has yet to implement the new tariff system.
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