This meeting was held from 19 through 23 September 2022 at the OSJD Committee in accordance with the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Passenger Traffic using the videoconferencing mode. The meeting was attended by the representatives from the following OSJD railways: Vietnamese Railway State Company (VZD), “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Company” JSC (KZH), China State Railway Group Со., Ltd. (KZD), Ministry of Railways of the DPRK (ZC), Ulan-Bator Railway JSC (UBZD), Russian Railways OJSC (RZD OJSC), as well as from the OSJD affiliated enterprise – Russian Post JSC and the OSJD Committee.

Attila Kiss, Secretary of the OSJD Committee, addressed the meeting participants with a welcoming speech and information on the issues being within the scope of the Conference of General Directors.

As part of the agenda, the following items were considered and agreed upon:

- timetables, indicators for formation of passenger train coach sequence and the provision of coaches in them in international traffic of Group II of railways for 2022-2023;

- the date and venue of the next meeting of Group II of OSJD railways in 2023, as well as the priority schedule of holding these meetings for 2024-2028.

Coordination of passenger train timetables, formation of train coach sequence indicators and consideration of the issues related to their service was organised within the framework of the following working subgroups:

RZD OJSC – UBZD JSC – KZD;

KZD – UBZD JSC;

KZD – VZD;

RZD OJSC – ZC;

RZD OJSC – UBZD JSC;

RZD OJSC – KZD;

KZD – KZH;

KZD – ZC.

Based on the results of consideration of the proposals received from railways, the meeting took the following decisions:

- the existing volumes of international passenger train traffic on 19 routes have been preserved;

- VZD and KZD have allocated the seats in coaches and the procedure for booking tickets for these seats;

- VZD and KZD agreed on the procedure for selling tickets for passengers wishing to travel to third countries in transit through Beijing;

- KZD, UBZD JSC, RZD OJSC will conduct a test trip of the modernised rolling stock of train No. 3/4 of the KZD formation in the direction of Beijing – Moscow and back as soon as possible after the restrictive measures are lifted by the state authorities of China, Mongolia, Russia and the traffic of passenger trains across the state borders is resumed;

- KZD, ZC and RZD OJSC have agreed to keep running the through coaches in service both between China and the DPRK and between Russia and the DPRK.

The meeting took note of the fact that starting from 29 April 2022, only the movement of trains of the FPC JSC and UBZD JSC formation No. 306/305 Irkutsk – Ulan-Bator in the traffic between the Russian Federation and Mongolia was resumed, and the rest of the international passenger traffic will be resumed by mutual consent of the railways after the decision is taken by the state authorities to remove all restrictive measures for the movement of citizens across the state borders.

The meeting participants took note of the fact that the format of the meetings in 2023 will depend on the epidemiological situation in the OSJD member countries.

The meeting approved the following priority schedule of holding the meetings of Group II of OSJD railways for the development and coordination of passenger train timetables, formation of train coach sequence indicators in international traffic for the period of 2024-2028:

2024 – Republic of Kazakhstan,

2025 – People’s Republic of China,

2026 – Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

2027 – Mongolia,

2028 – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

As part of the information exchange, the RZD OJSC presented to the meeting participants the proposals for the implementation of projects for the transportation of goods and luggage in the trains consisting solely of luggage wagons, and also informed the UBZD JSC and KZD about the ongoing joint works carried out together with the passenger carrier – FPC JSC (OSJD observer) as regards the implementation of the claims and requests from the Russian operator companies: RZD Logistics JSC, Russian Post JSC, FESCO Rail Jet LLC for the organisation of transportation by trains composed of luggage wagons in the traffic Moscow – Erlian and Moscow – Manchuria.