On October 31, 2025, the Institute for Transport Economics and Development (IEDT) held its milestone 90th meeting of the Academic Council, dedicated to the development of methods for evaluating prospective railway passenger service projects.

At the meeting, Ildar F. Mustafin, Head of the Suburban Passenger Transportation Development Department at IEDT, presented a report on the advancement of methodological approaches to forecasting passenger train traffic volumes for long-distance and suburban services across the Russian Railways (RZD) network.

A report on the progress and results of developing a methodology for ranking high-speed and express rail projects was delivered by Sergey E. Korobkin, PhD in Economics, Deputy Head of the Passenger Transportation Development Center at IEDT.

The session featured constructive discussions and an exchange of views, including with representatives of the scientific and expert community and specialized units of the RZD Holding. Participants discussed new methodological approaches to passenger transportation forecasting and further development of research tools for analyzing future high-speed rail (HSR) and other promising projects.