Within the framework of the subject “Updating the Agreement on the Use of Freight Wagons in International Traffic (PGW)” in accordance with the approved Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2021, the OSJD Committee (Warsaw) held two meetings using the videoconferencing mode.

On 6-7 April 2021, an expert meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on the Use of Freight Wagons in International Traffic (Agreement on PGW) was held on the subject: “Development of a draft document regulating the procedure for identifying the status of joint-use freight wagons for their accounting”, which was attended by the representatives of the Parties to the Agreement on PGW from the following railways: BC, MAV Co., RCH Co. (OSJD affiliated enterprise), KZH (“KTZ NC” JSC), LDZ Cargo, LTG, PKP Cargo JSC, Russian Railways OJSC, UTI, UZ and EVR, as well as the OSJD Committee.

The meeting discussed the issue of identifying the status of shared (joint-use) freight wagons for their accounting, within the framework of which the OSJD Committee presented a summary information on the following aspects:

- the need to determine the status of a shared (joint-use) freight wagon;

- the definition of information technology;

- the scope of information on the shared (joint-use) freight wagon;

- setting up the list of data required to obtain information on shared wagons for the purpose of making calculations.

Some of the meeting participants confirmed the problem of ensuring that the wagon lists are filled out in a complete and correct way. In this regard, the meeting participants agreed on the changes in subparagraph 19.1 of the PGW and in Annex 2.1 “Procedure for filling out the wagon list” to the PGW.

The meeting participants also emphasized the importance of resolving the issue of determining the wagons’ owner and status and, as a temporary solution, considered the procedure for transmitting the information about the change in the status of the wagon, proposed by the PKP Cargo JSC.

At the same time, the meeting participants noted that the temporary order is the first step towards organising the information interaction, and the work on creating (using) the information platform to resolve accounting and operational issues on shared wagons will be continued in the future.

On 8-9 April 2021, an expert meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on PGW was held on the subject: “Preparation of proposals for changing the PGW Rules and Annex 17 to PGW”, which was attended by the representatives of the Parties to the Agreement on PGW from the following OSJD railways: BC, MAV Co., RCH Co., KZH (“KTZ NC” JSC), LDZ Cargo, LTG, PKP Cargo JSC, Russian Railways OJSC, UTI, UZ and EVR, as well as the OSJD Committee.

The following items were discussed within the meeting agenda:

- consideration of proposals for changing the PGW Rules;

- consideration of proposals to amend Annex 17 to PGW.

Basing on the results of the discussion, the meeting participants agreed to maintain the current version of Annex 9 “Cost of 1 kg of wagon tare” to the PGW and conceptually supported the approach proposed by the RZD OJSC to revise Appendix 2 to Annex 17 “Methodology for calculating the tariff rates for the use of wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies» to PGW with the purpose of optimizing it.

Taking into account the results of the discussion, the meeting participants by a simple majority have preliminarily agreed on the changes proposed by LDZ Cargo to be introduced in paragraph 1.3.4 of the Methodology.

The Russian Railways OJSC, being the leading duty holder on the subject, informed the participants that during 2018-2020 KZD and ZC did not provide initial data for calculating the tariff rates for the use of freight wagons in accordance with the Methodology, following which the proposals were submitted to the Methodology to exclude participation in voting on the draft tariff rates for those railway companies that do not provide the specified data, as well as due to the fact that according to the results of the calculation of the tariff rates, some differences were found in the volume of the initial data for 2019 provided by the railway companies. Changes in clause 1.2.3 of the Methodology concerning the procedure for sending clarifications as to the changes and further decision-making regarding the inclusion of the presented data on costs in the calculation were also presented.

Further consideration and approval of the proposals on these issues are planned to be hold at the next meeting of the representatives of the Parties to the Agreement on PGW (15-17 June 2021).