The transportation of containers in gondola cars in the Russian Far East did not emerge as a full-fledged alternative to container flatcars, but rather as a response to a sharp change in the structure of freight flows. After 2022, a significant portion of imports previously routed through the Northwestern direction was redirected to the eastern route. Along with the cargo, a much larger number of containers also had to be delivered there. At the same time, the return flow that could have ensured the regular positioning of container flatcars at Far Eastern ports proved insufficient. As a result, the market began using available rolling stock, and containers started being shipped in gondola cars.

As Roman Martyshkin, Deputy Head of the Center for Macroeconomics and International Projects at JSC “IEDT”, notes, this arrangement was initially a consequence of an imbalance rather than a standard logistics model.

“This whole situation with removing containers in gondola cars did not arise because everything was going so well,” the expert says.

R. Martyshkin notes that Russian Railways is interested in using transportation capacity as efficiently as possible, rather than sending empty container flatcars to the Far East. In other words, the issue is not so much the availability of the flatcars themselves as the balance of freight flows. As long as the export container flow is unable to generate sufficient loading for the return leg, the gondola car remains a viable tool for removing imported containers.

“That is why the shortage of these container flatcars is precisely being compensated for by gondola cars,” R. Martyshkin concludes.

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