Under the subject “Use of freight wagons in international traffic”, in accordance with the approved Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2023, on 4-5 April 2023 an expert meeting was held at the OSJD Committee in Warsaw, on the issue of “Identification of the status of shared freight wagons for their recording”, which was attended by the representatives of the Parties to the Agreement on the Use of Freight Wagons in International Traffic (PGW Agreement) from the following railway companies: Byelorussian Railway (BC), Hungarian State Railways Co. (MAV Co.), Rail Cargo Hungaria Co. (RCH Co.), “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Company” JSC (KZH), Latvian Railway Cargo LLC (LDZ Cargo), Lietuvos geležinkeliai JSC (LTG), Russian Railways OJSC (RZD OJSC), Railway Company Cargo Slovakia JSC (ZSSK Cargo), O’zbekiston Temir Yo’llari JSC (UTI), Ukrainian Railways JSC (UZ), Estonian Railway JSC (EVR), as well as representatives of the Party to the Agreement on PGW from the Ulan-Bator Railway JSC (UBZD JSC); including those from the concerned railways – Azerbaijani Railways CJSC and the Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA); from OSJD affiliated enterprises – “Post of Russia” JSC, Russian University of Transport (RUT (MIIT)), “Far Eastern Shipping Company” PJSC (FESCO PJSC) and the OSJD Committee.

When considering the issue of identifying the status of shared freight wagons for their recording, the meeting participants deemed appropriate, taking into account the positions of the Parties to the PGW Agreement received by the OSJD Committee from BC, BDZ, MAV Co., RCH Co., KRG, LDZ Cargo, LTG, PKP Cargo, RZD OJSC, UZ and EVR and the exchange of views regarding a certain approach chosen for organising information interaction, and information tools selected (creation of a new information platform for electronic data exchange on shared wagons or use of existing information databases), to continue carrying out work on ensuring the information exchange on shared wagons. They noted that the first step could be to make available a folder on the OSJD Website (on a logged platform) or in the cloud of the OSJD Committee for each Party to the PGW Agreement in order to promptly post/update information on shared wagons in the agreed Excel format (Appendix 38 to PGW “Procedure for the submission of information on shared wagons of the Parties to the PGW Agreement”).

The Chairman of the meeting informed the participants on the possibility and readiness to make available a folder on the OSJD website (on a logged platform) or in the cloud of the OSJD Committee for each Party to the PGW Agreement in order to promptly make available/update information on shared wagons in the agreed Excel format (Appendix 38 to PGW “Procedure for the submission of information on shared wagons of the Parties to the PGW Agreement”).

In the event of a positive decision taken on this issue at the meeting of authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement, which is scheduled to be held at the OSJD Committee on 19-22 June 2023, the meeting participants considered it expedient to develop the Rules for working with the information platform and identify the status of the document (either an annex to the PGW or an OSJD leaflet).

The meeting participants also deliberated the proposals made by the MAV Co. and RCH Co., Parties to the PGW Agreement, on amending the PGW Agreement regarding the identification of wagons, as a result of which it was decided that additional discussion would be needed at the scheduled meeting of authorised representatives of the Parties to the PGW Agreement to be held at the OSJD Committee in June 2023 to consider proposals to supplement § 3 “General conditions for the use of wagons” of Appendix B(Б) to the PGW Agreement with a new subparagraph regarding the requirements for identifying wagons and applying inscriptions on the wagon, as well as to add to subparagraph 16.2 of § 16 “General Provisions” of Appendix B(Б) to the PGW Agreement a provision on the procedure for reporting in case of some changes in the status of a shared wagon.