In accordance with the decision of session III of the International Conference for the adoption of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic (27 November – 1 December 2017, Warsaw, Republic of Poland), Session IV of the International Conference was held in Warsaw from 26 till 30 March 2018, which was attended by the delegations from the following OSJD member states:

On 12 March, in Riga, a meeting of the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian national railway managers took place for the first time. Its result was an agreement to organise the ‘Amber Train’: an intermodal container train on the route Sestokai - Riga - Tallinn.

On 6 March 2018, the Chairman of the OSJD Committee, Mr. Tadeusz Szozda and the WCO Secretary General, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, signed in Brussels a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the cooperation between the two organisations.

On 16 April, meeting XXXIII of the Conference of General Directors began its work in the city of Da Nang (Socialist Republic of Vietnam), scheduled for 16-20 April 2018.

On 9 January 2018, the electrified section of Karshi-Termez was officially put into operation. This project was implemented in accor­dance with the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PP-1712 as of 21 February 2012.

During the official visit of the representatives of the Government of the Republic of Latvia and the President of the Latvian Railway Group (Latvijas dzelzcels, LDz) in Minsk in the beginning of 2018, the issues of further cooperation development between Latvian and Byelorussian railway companies were discussed, and on 5 February the first freight express train Riga — Minsk departed from the station of Skirotava (Latvia).

On 8 February 2018, the first trial freight train composed of six wagons which arrived from Russia and loaded with timber and laminated wood (MDF) set off on the railway line Astara (Azerbaijan) - Astara (Iran). The commissioning of this cross-border railway line is scheduled for March 2018, and it is expected that the Presidents of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran will take part in the opening ceremony of this new line.

On 15 January 2018 the Sultan Alparslan Ferry on the Lake Van started its operation. It will provide freight and passenger railway services between Turkey and Iran.

On 21 December 2017 the delegation of the Republic of Belarus paid a working visit to the OSJD Committee. The Byelorussian delegation was headed by HE Minister of Transport of the Republic of Belarus Anatoly Sivak accompanied by HE Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Poland Alexander Averyanov, Head of the Byelorussian Railway Vladimir Morozov and other officials. The OSJD Committee was headed by Chairman of the OSJD Committee Tadeusz Szozda, Deputy Chairman of the OSJD Committee Zhang Qun, Chairman of the OSJD Commission on Passenger Traffic Viktar Kashanau and the OSJD Committee staff.

Double-decker trains manufactured for OSJD railways in the Republic of Belarus

Beginning from May 2014, the Byelorussian machine-building enterprise “Stadler Minsk” CJSC, which is a subdivision of the Swiss company “Stadler” and is located in the city of Fanipol near Minsk, began the production of the state-of-the-art high-tech modern passenger trains for OSJD countries, where the track gauge of the railway network is 1520 mm. Along with other subdivisions of the concern, Stadler Minsk carries out activities in the field of development, design, construction and production of railway rolling stock for urban, suburban and regional traffic, rack-and-pinion railways, as well as for inter-regional and intercity service. Yet with the launch of the first production facilities, the new plant was actively involved in the project for the manufacture, adjustment and delivery of double-decker electric multiple units of KISS series for the needs of the Azerbaijani and Georgian Railways, as well as the Moscow suburban company Aeroexpress.