N. S. Bushuev’s research while affiliated with Petersburg State Transport University and other places

With effect from January 1, 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have become new members of the BRICS. Today, BRICS is an association of 10 countries that account for about 42 % of the world’s total population (2.8 billion people) and 27 % of the global GDP. According to experts, a major focus is made on the association’s prospective economic potential and its expected share of the world’s economy. What seems interesting in the context of the continued economic growth is the research in the field of development of the transport industry in the BRICS countries. Earlier, the BRICS Transport journal (Issue No. 2 (4), 2023) presented an overview of the state and progress of high-speed railway transport in the five BRICS founding countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the Republic of South Africa). In connection with the expansion of the transnational association, it is proposed that the research should be extended. The authors used both findings of scholarly works in the field of railway transport development, and BRICS summit reports and presentations available on Russian and foreign information platforms. The paper analyses the development of railway transport in the countries that have joined BRICS recently (Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia), in particular, the prospects of development of express and high-speed rail services.

Today, about 59,000 km of specialised high-speed railway lines are in operation worldwide, about 20,000 km are under construction, and more than 50,000 km are planned to be commissioned. The maximum commercial speed of passenger trains has increased to 350 km/h. The world’s first high-speed freight trains have been designed and put into trial operation. Mastering advanced technologies in the field of high-speed railway transport, as before, is an indicator of the country’s development level. The construction of high-speed lines (HSL), along with others, solves an important problem on a global scale — it makes a significant contribution to environmental protection. We used the materials of reports and papers published on foreign information platforms; the results of the research work of Russian scientists and engineers in the field of increasing train speeds. In the BRICS countries, construction and design work on high-speed railways is underway, but given the unique conditions of each country, the pace of development is different. China is the leader of scientific progress in this sector of the railway industry, which attracts the attention of the world scientific community, including the Russian one. In Russia, according to the Transport Strategy up to 2030 with a forecast for the period up to 2035, it is envisaged to develop a network of high-speed railway lines with the unification of the largest agglomerations of the European part of the country into zones of two-hour accessibility. It is necessary to continue study and improve knowledge in the field of high-speed railway transport development.

The COVID-19 pandemic period in rail freight transportation in Russia is marked by indicators of rapid growth of transit traffic, export and import volumes, the average speed of transportation increase and delivery speed of transit container traffic. The positive dynamics point to the necessity of continuing research in the field of improving the quality of service in this sector of the railway industry.Information materials of transport and logistics companies services were used. The methods and technologies used to improve the quality of service in railway transport were analyzed: reducing the delivery time of goods, increasing the average delivery speed of transit container traffic, identifying the most demanded nomenclature of goods, increasing the total volume of transit container traffic in Russia.Currently, according to the approved Complex Plan of Modernization and Expansion of Mainline Infrastructure, by 2024 the estimated delivery time of transit container transportation across Russia in the West-East direction should be seven days, average delivery speed of transit container traffic should reach 1319 km/day, and the volume of transit container transportation should reach the level of 1656 thousand TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit). In this regard, it is necessary to develop a reliable methodology for determining the perspective volumes of container transportation in regular, express and high-speed trains with the identification of the most demanded nomenclature of cargo, taking into account the speed of delivery.

An analysis of hydro-meteorological and engineering-geological conditions of the Russia's Eastern Siberia and the Far East is provided in the article.