ARMENIAN CONCESSION STARTS
Nicholas Kingsley

Railway Gazette International
iew/article/2008/06/8514/armenian_concession_start s.html
June 4 2008
UK

South Caucasus Railways commenced management of Armenian Railways under
a concession agreement on June 1. Under the terms of the transfer,
SCR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways, received 2â~@~E000
freight wagons, 58 passenger coaches, 85 locomotives and 30 EMUs from
AR. All 4â~@~E300 AR staff have also transferred, according to RZD.

The concession agreement lasts 30 years, with an option to extend for
another 20 years available after the first 20 years of operation. RZD
has pledged to invest US$400m in upgrading AR’s infrastructure and
a further US$170m is to be spent on rolling stock improvement. The
management of SCR intends to ‘bring AR into line with Russian
regulatory standards for maintaining infrastructure and rolling
stock’, with communications equipment and staff training other key
areas of focus.

SCR’s planned enhancements include construction of new lines
between Yerevan and Batumi and between Yerevan and Poti ‘in the near
future’. The country’s key freight corridors are also investment
priorities, as SCR believes the network could support up to 30 million
tonnes of freight per annum, a level not reached since 1988. In 2006,
AR carried 2·7 million tonnes. SCR also plans to ‘promote cooperation
with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine’ — although at present,
the border with Georgia is the only international frontier open to
rail traffic.

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