The meeting of the authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement on updating the existing PGW Agreement, introduction of amendments and additions to the PGW Rules, updating the charge rates for the use of freight wagons and bogies in international rail traffic and identification of the status of the shared-use freight wagons for their accounting was held in the OSJD Committee in Warsaw from 19 to 22 June 2023 according to the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2023. The issues related to the adoption of draft Work Plan on “Updating the Agreement on use of freight wagons in international traffic (PGW)” for 2024 were also addressed.

The meeting was attended by the authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement from Belarus (BC), Bulgaria (Holding BDZ), Hungary (MAV Co., RCH CJSC), Iran (RAI), Kazakhstan (KZH), Kyrgyzstan (KRG), Latvia (LDZ Cargo), Lithuania (LTG), Moldavia (CFM), Mongolia (UBZD JSC), Russia (RZD OJSC), Romania (UTZ, KTV), Slovakia (ZSSK Cargo), Tajikistan (TDZ), Uzbekistan (UTI), Ukraine (Ukrainian Railways JSC), Estonia (EVR), as well as representatives of the OSJD Committee.

The Chairman of the meeting in her welcome address thanked the delegation members for their active engagement and emphasised the relevance of the meeting, in particular with a view to the decisions to be taken on current and important issues included on the agenda.

Attila Kiss, Secretary of the OSJD Committee informed the meeting participants of decisions which have been taken at XXXVII Session of the Conference of General Directors (Authorised Representatives) of OSJD Railways (12-14 April and 19 April 2023) with regard to the freight traffic, including the issue of updating the Agreement on the use of freight wagons in international traffic (PGW Agreement) and actualisation of the Rules for the use of freight wagons in international traffic with regard to recommendations on identification of freight wagons in international traffic.

The meeting participants were also informed on the implementation of the decisions taken at the meeting of the authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement (20-23 June 2022, OSJD Committee, Warsaw, in a videoconferencing mode).

The amendments to the PGW Agreement (item 4 of Article 8), Appendix B “Rules for the use of freight wagons in international traffic” (sub-item 4.2), Appendix 1 “Technical requirements for wagons” (sub-item 2.2.2.7, item 3, item 5, sub-item 12.13.2, sub-item 13.2), Appendix 17 “Methodology for calculation of charge rates for the use of wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies” (sub-item 1.2.3), Appendix G “Methodology for determining Parties’ vote shares” (item 4) and Appendix E “Request for accession to the PGW Agreement” have been adopted by the representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement at this meeting.

Furthermore, the participants of the meeting decided to continue the work on improvement of the PGW Agreement and updating of the PGW Agreement at the next meeting of experts, taking into account proposals from the Parties to the PGW Agreement.

The OSJD Committee, as the depositary of the PGW Agreement, will announce the final decision concerning adopted amendments and changes to the PGW Agreement and the PGW with a date of entry into force of 1 January 2024 to all the Parties to the PGW Agreement.

In the course of considering the possibility of changing the charge rates for the use of freight wagons, bogies and wagons without bogies in international traffic, the following was discussed: the calculated draft rates of payment (based on the data for 2022 submitted by the Parties to the PGW Agreement) and the current rates taking into account the indexation coefficient. However, according to the voting results, no decision to change the rate was made.

The meeting also discussed the identification of the status of shared-use freight wagons for their accounting in connection with the necessity to settle the issue of determining the owner and status of shared-use wagons. The Chairman of the meeting informed the participants about the OSJD Committee’s network storage resources, which could be made available for each Party to the PGW Agreement for publication and actualisation of data related to the shared-use wagons in the Excel format (Appendix 38 “Procedure for the submission of information on wagons in shared use by the Parties to the PGW Agreement”). Following the results of the discussion the participants of the meeting addressed the OSJD Committee with a request to prepare folders (directories) for each Party to the PGW Agreement and to inform the Parties to the PGW Agreement about the possibility to fill them.

Finally, the participants of the meeting decided to include the topic “Updating the Agreement on the use of freight wagons in international traffic (PGW)” in the draft Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2024.