According to Eurostat, the total road and railway cargo turnover between the EU and Russian Federation for 4 month of 2013 is equal to14 577,000 t. It is 3% more in comparison with the same period last year. The volume of railway cargo transportations has not changed, while road cargo transportations have increased by 7%. In other words, the growth of total cargo turnover has not affected the volume of railway cargo transportations. It indicates that more cargoes have been transferred by road transport.
Railway transport dominates export carriages from the Russian Federation. For 4 month of the current year more than 6 096,000 ton cargoes have been delivered from the Russian Federation to EU by railway transport (-1% in comparison with the same period of 2012). 1090,000 t has been transported from the EU to Russia (+4%).
Road transport is more employed to deliver cargoes from the EU to Russia. For 4 month of 2013 5238,000 t of cargoes have been transferred from EU countries to Russia by road transport (+6% in comparison with the same period last year); 2153,000 t have been transferred from Russia (+9%). In other words, the total road cargo turnover has increased, but the export from the Russian Federation is higher. Having the reduction in railway transportations from Russia, it may be concluded that there is modal split between railway and road transport.
As for commodities groups, for 4 months of 2012/2013 the export (from Russia) of the following products has decreased: fertilizers (-52,000 t), metal products (-78,000 t), metallic ore and scrap (-218,000 t). However the road transportations of metal products from Russia have considerably increased (+63,000 t).
The considerable modal split between railway and road transport for the import and export of other commodities groups has not been observed. But the deliveries of agricultural products (including unseasoned wood) from the Russian Federation to EU have been performed more often by railway transport. For 4 months of 2012 road and railway transport delivered to the EU more than 600,000 t each. For the same period of 2013 road transport transferred to the EU 765,000 t, and railway transport – 987,000 t.