On 13 June 2022 a working meeting took place in the OSJD Committee premises in Warsaw with the delegation of the “KTZ NC” JSC, headed by Batyr Kotyrev, Chief Engineer – Director of the Technical Policy Department, accompanied by Zubaida Aspayeva, Chairperson of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic – Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the OSJD Committee, and Yerzhan Araltay, Chief Manager of the Department of Interaction with International Organisations of “KTZ NC” JSC.

Opening the meeting, Chairman of the OSJD Committee Mirosław Antonowicz emphasised the particular importance of holding face-to-face official and working meetings, as this contributes to the establishment of closer personal contacts for a more effective comprehensive discussion of working issues in the post-pandemic period.

He also noted that Kazakhstan plays an important role in the work of OSJD and is essential in organising railway freight traffic between China and Europe.

Batyr Kotyrev noted that the Railways of Kazakhstan have been taking an active part in the OSJD activities for many years and highly appreciate the outcomes of the Organisation’s activities for the development of international railway transport between Asia and Europe. In this regard, he proposed to publish more information about the activities of the “KTZ NC” JSC on the OSJD platforms (Website, OSJD Bulletin journal).

In their presentations and speeches, the Deputy Chairmen of the OSJD Committee Mikhail Vsevolozhskiy and Zhang Qun, the Secretary of the OSJD Committee Attila Kiss provided guests with a detailed information about the tasks and structure of the OSJD, as well as its current activities in the following areas:

- transport policy and development strategy, including analysis of reforms in railway transport, development of OSJD corridors, development of procedures to facilitate border crossing, etc.;

- transport law, including the improvement and administration of the SMPS and SMGS Agreements, etc.;

- freight traffic, including the organisation of combined, intermodal and multimodal transportation in international segment, improvement and updating of the agreement in the field of organising combined transportation in the direction of Europe – Asia – Europe, improvement of international agreements on transit freight tariffs (ETT and MTT), PGW rules and updating tariff conditions for transit transportation of goods, harmonisation of the unified system of description and coding of goods (GNG) for the transportation by railways of the OSJD member countries in international traffic, organisation of transportation of goods in containers in international traffic and transportation of goods using the CIM/ SMGS consignment note, development and organisation of transportation by rail of postal items in international traffic; development and coordination of timetables for the movement of freight trains in international traffic and the coordination of the volumes of goods carried in international traffic, etc.;

- passenger transportation, including the development and coordination of timetables, schemes for the formation of passenger trains, development and interaction of national electronic systems for booking seats and selling travel documents, reference and information services for passengers, etc., the introduction of modern digital technologies in the passenger sector;

- coding and information technologies, financial and accounting issues;

- preparation of documents in the field of the OSJD Academy functioning and vocational education/training in the field of railway transport;

- OSJD cooperation with observers, affiliated enterprises and international organisations in the field of transport.

The information on OSJD activities in the field of infrastructure and rolling stock, which was presented by the Chairman of the OSJD Commission on Infrastructure and Rolling Stock Radovan Vopalecky, was of particular interest to the delegation of “KTZ NC” JSC, including the subjects of “Rolling stock gauges and dimensions in international traffic, taking into account the interoperability requirements”, “Signalling and communication networks”, “Power supply and power traction equipment”, “Rolling stock for railways. Technical requirements as to its elements”, “Reviewing and converting the OSJD/UIC joint leaflets into draft OSJD/UIC international railway solutions (IRS)” (the first IRS has already been developed here in terms of rolling stock dimensions).

Within the framework of the subject “Railway track and engineering structures”, the work on the sub-topics “Rails, rail fastenings, jointless track, mechanization of track works”, “Track formation and engineering structures”, “Comprehensive diagnostics of the railway track”, “Reinforced concrete sleepers, beams, turnouts and their diagnostics”, especially in terms of laying the cable routings, sleepers, creating noise protection shields, dealing with the consequences of sandstorms, providing diagnostics of the track in tunnels and on bridges, introducing and developing modern digital technologies, etc.

The specialists from the Kazakhstan Railways are actively involved in many of these areas of the OSJD work.

In conclusion, the parties thanked each other for cooperation, detailed information and expressed their desire for more active participation both in the events organised within the framework of OSJD and in the events held by the “KTZ NC” JSC.