The news which have been recently come out at one of the international forums, are a disappointment to those who had expected that construction of the Moscow – Kazan HSR would have been started 2 years ago. It has been decided to build only a small section which will be a little more than 300 km long. And if the optimists are continue to believe in bright high speed future, the skeptics consider this step as another habitual postponement of the HSR project implementation.
First of all it is necessary to adopt the law
Original length of the Moscow – Kazan HSR was planned to be 770 km. Moreover, it was said that this new railway would have become a part of the high-speed railway "Eurasia" which would connect China and Europe. As a result, a single Eurasian HSR network of almost 50 thousand km long would have been created for the transportation of goods and passengers.
However, these plans have been shelved. It has been decided to start only the first stage of building the Moscow-Kazan HSR. This project includes construction of HSR from Zheleznodorozhny to Gorokhovets (city located on the border of Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions), on the section of a little more than 300 kilometers long. Speed of the trains that will run on this section will be 360 - 400 km/h.
During forum "PRO//Motion 1520”, First Deputy General Director of JSC" Russian Railways " Alexander Misharin said that this project was included in the Comprehensive plan for the modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure until 2024, which the government approved on September 24 this year.
It is already known that this plan has included 104 railway transport projects including projects of high - speed rail lines: Moscow - Kazan and Yekaterinburg - Chelyabinsk, high-speed mainline Krasnodar-Grozny with the extension to Makhachkala.
Then why has it been decided to build only a small section of HSR? Probably because many issues have not yet been resolved. Thus, the Law "On High-Speed Traffic" has not been adopted. Till this law has not passed it is difficult to implement large projects. Therefore it has been decided to start with a pilot site.
The Ministry of Transport said that the decision to build the Moscow-Kazan HSR was a leap in the dark. Today the financial, organizational and legal models are clear. They have been developed during tough discussions.
Moreover, the Zheleznodorozhny-Gorokhovets HSR is planned to become a test site for construction and operation technologies which are new for Russia, and for a high-speed rolling stock which is already being developed by the partners of JSC "Russian Railways".
The preliminary cost of the first stage of the HSR excluding the infrastructure within Moscow borders, is estimated at 621 billion rubles. More 100 billion rubles will be needed to purchase rolling stock and to build a depot for its maintaining. The contract for the purchase of electric trains is planned to be signed in the first half of 2019. It is assumed that the government will invest 200 billion rubles in the HSR pilot project, the rest sum will be covered by the funds of concessionaires and private business.
According to Alexander Misharin, in addition to the implementation of this project, high-speed passenger trains will be launched on the line from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. These trains also will run on the sections of the existing infrastructure. Journey time between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod including all stops will be 2 hours 31 minutes.
The design of the railway line at the Zheleznodorozhny-Gorokhovets section has been completed and a positive conclusion of Glavgosexpertiza authority has been obtained.
Why can’t construction works be started?
Первый участок ВСМ от Железнодорожного в Подмосковье до города Гороховец планируется ввести в эксплуатацию в 2024 году. «Если правильно организуем работу, то, может быть, и раньше», – заметил Александр Мишарин.
"It is necessary to create the missing legal framework for the implementation of the project," says Alexander Misharin. First of all two laws should be adopted: on a special procedure for the seizure of land for construction and property tax exemption for the HSR at least during construction period.
The scale of the land problems can be judged by the figures: experts have estimated that for the construction of the Moscow-Kazan HSR it is necessary to withdraw about 15 thousand land plots. Almost half of them are within the pilot section. All this time, negotiations with their owners are conducted, but not all of them are ready to leave their land plots.
The first section of the HSR from Zheleznodorozhny in the Moscow Region to Gorokhovets is scheduled to be put into operation in 2024. "If we organize the work correctly, then it may happen earlier," Alexander Misharin said.
It all starts with the project
The design of the Moscow — Kazan HSR in Russia is being performed by the Russian-Chinese consortium led by JSC "Mosgiprotrans" with the participation of JSC "Nizhegorodmetroproject", China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co. Ltd.
About 70% of works are conducted by Russian companies and 30% by Chinese partners. The customer is JSC "Russian Railways" and the project coordinator is its subsidiary company JSC "High-Speed Rail Lines".
The design of high-speed highways, undoubtedly, has its own specifics.
"We live in the age of new technologies," Igor Mitsuk, the General Director of Mosgiprotrans says. “That is why, the project of the first HSR in our country is unique. It immediately required a continuous expert and scientific support. And this support was provided.
Scientific, technical, expert and methodological support of the HSR project is being provided by the Expert Council on technical policy in the field of design, construction and operation of high-speed railways in the Russian Federation. This Council includes 186 experts from various scientific organizations and design institutes of Russia.
The General Director of JSC "Mosgiprotrans" also noted that the Moscow-Kazan HSR construction area has difficult natural conditions. The route passes through a densely populated plain with rather difficult geographical and geological conditions, especially in the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Do not forget about the high seasonal temperature fluctuations.
In this area there are sections with weak bases and karst and marshy sections requiring a large amount of works for preparing roadbed subbase. In order to perform more detailed survey of dangerous geological processes, an innovative method of geophysical research electrotomography was used. Then, an earth roadbed multi-layer engineering structure with two protective layers and the strengthening of weak bases was developed.
“Of course, we used advanced technologies of information modeling of infrastructure facilities in design,” says Igor Mitsuk. “BIM forms the basis for all decisions throughout the facility life cycle from planning to designing, preparing design documentation, construction, operation and demolition.”
He also noted the main difference between HSRs and ordinary railways: HSR project provides for the transition from the classical technology of construction of the railway track using crushed stone and sleepers to monolithic concrete structure. This will be an "intelligent" track equipped with sensors monitoring the state of a structure throughout its lifetime.
The Head of the design institute believes that the ballast-free path can be considered not just an innovation for Russia but a "breakthrough technology" that will change the established approaches to track construction and maintenance, standards for track maintenance requirements to rolling stock. By the way, the experience of Chinese colleagues helped designers to develop this new technology.
Innovation contains each section of the HSR design documentation. For example, the catenary system for the first time in the world is designed for speed of up to 360 km/h. Contact wires of the catenary system will be made of heavy-duty alloys such as "copper-magnesium" or "copper-chromium-zirconium". Support and supporting structures of increased rigidity as well as foundations in the form of bored piles have been developed.
The project also includes unified designs of artificial structures (split beam systems and continuous reinforced concrete beam systems), multi-layer construction of the roadbed. The traffic safety system is automated to the fullest extent, thus excluding the influence of the "human factor". The HSR will be equipped with stationary monitoring and diagnostics systems and many other things.
High speeds require special measures to ensure train safety. Optical, inertial and other non-contact measurement systems will help to monitor the condition of HSR. They are able to monitor the geometry and spatial position of the track, the surface of rails, the state of the roadbed at the speed of up to 400 km/h. The devices of railway automatics and telemechanics, radio communications, and contact network also will be under control.
All data will be collected by an automated computer system which will provide remote detection of defects immediately after they appear and promptly take corresponding measures.
“Innovative Russian developments which have no analogues in the world, were used in the HSR project,” said Igor Mitsuk. “For example, fault detection systems which are able to monitor rails at high speeds. Such systems are already successfully operated by JSC "Russian Railways".
Many people are concerned that the HSR can have a negative impact on the environment. By the way, three routes for the HSR have been considered for the Moscow-Vladimir section, and as a result, it has been decided to choose one that crosses a smaller number of settlements where there are no large industrial enterprises.
Ecologists worry about rare muskrats living in the floodplain of the Klyazma river and other animals and birds listed in the "Red Book". Thus, in order to minimize the risks, it has been decided that a 9-kilometer section of the HSR on the Vladimir Region territory will be built on viaducts. Therefore, it will perfectly fit into the natural landscape.
“We worked individually with each region and municipality,” Igor Mitsuk said. “Field survey, collection and analysis of information were carried out taking into account all possible environmental constraints. Therefore, the HSR project is one of the few projects that meet the "green" standards.
The high-speed line will be very beautiful. It is already known that new stations and terminals will be built in Petushki, Vladimir, Kovrov and Gorokhovets. For their design, special technical conditions have been developed. Modern multi-purpose centers will be built as well. There will be a safe environment formed which will provide a comfortable and fast transferrance of passengers from one mode of transport to another.
In the design of the first HSR a foreign experience has been used. According to the specialists of Mosgiprotrans JSC, the best Russian and foreign innovations in the field of high-speed rail transport management have been used for developing design solutions for automation and telemechanics. The project provides for highly reliable computer systems of automation and telemechanics with backup of information processing devices and power sources.
"A three – level structure of the traffic management system on the Moscow - Kazan HSR," said Igor Mitsuk, "corresponds to the system of railway automation and telemechanics of the French and Chinese high - speed railway lines, and to the proposals of the German initiative consortium.
In short, the HSR project includes technologies of the "digital" future which can be further developed.
It was not easy to pass the expertise of the HSR. However, as expected.
“I don’t want to dissemble,” said Igor Mitsuk, “we overcame a lot of difficulties over those three years. As I said, the project has no analogues in Russia. And everything that is new always causes the increased interests and fears. Of course high rates at all stages of work, tight deadlines of the project caused certain complications for passing the examination. Besides, we, designers and experts of Glavgosexpertiza of Russia, knew what a huge responsibility lies on our shoulders, so we all tried to carry out the work very professionally. There were many competent and practical recommendations and we are grateful to the experts for this. The result of our joint hard work on the project was a positive conclusion of the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia regarding the construction project of the Moscow — Kazan HSR section from Vladimir to Nizhny Novgorod.
So when the pilot project has been completed, it will be possible to continue building the HSR. The section from Vladimir to Nizhny Novgorod is of more than 220 km long.
“The HSR network will fundamentally change the transport accessibility in our country”, - said the First Deputy General Director of JSC "Russian Railways" Alexander Misharin."Only Moscow — Kazan high-speed rail line will ensure transport accessibility for about 100 towns, uniting them in the Metropolitan area."
In his opinion, the lack of transport reaching a speed of 300 kilometers per hour is a disadvantage of the entire Russian transport which leads to the reduction of its competitiveness.
At the same time, the construction of any HSR is a huge impetus for the economy. It provides orders to other sectors of the economy and creates new industries and thousands of jobs. Our country needs all this like the air.
By: Tamara Andreeva, Ksenia Sergeeva
Source: http://www.rzd-partner.ru
