Information technologies in Russian Railways
Digital Transformation Strategy
Main article: Strategy for the digital transformation of Russian Railways
IT insourcing
Main article: IT insourcing in Russian Railways
Quantum technologies
Main article: Quantum technologies in Russian Railways
Russian Railways: Station Management System
Main article: Russian Railways: Station Management System
ERP system
Main article: Migration from SAP to the Russian ERP system
2024
Unmanned trains and electronic consignment notes. Russia and China agree on the digitalization of railway transportation
Russia and China have reached an agreement on joint work on the digitalization of rail transportation, which provides for the introduction of unmanned trains and electronic transport documents. This decision was made in August 2024.
According to RIA Novosti, the parties agreed to actively develop highly automated transport solutions and digital technologies within the framework of cooperation. One of the key initiatives will be the introduction of electronic consignment notes, which will greatly simplify and speed up the process of railway transportation between the two countries. In the long term, this step could lead to closer integration of the railway networks of Russia and China.
In addition, the projects of international railway communication on the routes Russia - Mongolia - China and Russia - Kazakhstan - China were discussed. These transport corridors play an important role in expanding trade relations between the countries and will significantly increase the range of transported goods through the busiest checkpoints on the Russian-Chinese border.
According to the joint communiqué, one of the priority areas was also the creation of new formats of freight transportation using unmanned trains, which will increase their safety and efficiency. The parties also agreed to stimulate air and road transportation between Russia and China, which contributes to the expansion of transport ties and diversification of delivery routes.
Both countries also paid attention to countering the smuggling and movement of dangerous and prohibited substances. Within the framework of the agreement, it is planned to strengthen cooperation in the field of control and security at the border to prevent such violations.[1]
1454 robots and unmanned composition. How is the digitalization of the East Siberian Railway
The East Siberian Railway (VSZhD) is actively introducing digital technologies, including software robots and unmanned vehicles, as part of the digital transformation strategy of Russian Railways. This became known in August 2024. There are 1,454 software robots in operation of Russian Railways, performing about 2.5 thousand routine operations. Read more here
How is the digitalization of the Baikal-Amur Railway 4300 km long and worth 17.7 billion rubles
Russian Railways is introducing a laser scanning system on the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) with the ability to build 3D models of cars and virtual coupling technology. The digitalization of the railway with a length of approximately 4300 km is described in the materials of the resource "Russian Railways Digital," which TAdviser got acquainted with in mid-July 2024. Read more here.
Russia and 14 other countries agreed on joint digitalization of railways
At the end of May 2024, Russia and 14 friendly countries agreed to accelerate the digital transformation of railway transport in the Asia-Pacific region. We are talking about the organization of electronic exchange of information between industry enterprises, as well as regulatory authorities on the railway network of the specified region.
In addition to the Russian Federation, the initiative is attended by,,,,,,,,,,,, China India Belarus Kazakhstan Mongolia Vietnam Indonesia DPRK Laos Pakistan Thailand and Tajikistan Uzbekistan Sri Lanka. The parties adopted the "UNESCAP Moscow Declaration on Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Rail Transport in the Asia-Pacific Region."
According to Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Dmitry Zverev, Russia is in favor of creating an effective and optimal structure of transport and logistics routes in the Asia-Pacific region using digital innovations. At the same time, full-scale use of the transit capabilities of the Russian Federation is possible. As an example of the use of digital technologies on various types of transport, Zverev cited the project of the Ministry of Transport and Russian Railways to formalize multimodal transportation of goods by road and rail using electronic transportation documents.
The adopted declaration provides for a number of recommendations for the digitalization of railways. Among them are the joint creation and implementation of harmonized information support systems on railway transport, including electronic processing of transport and accompanying documents, the development of telecommunication networks, including based on 4G/5G technologies, as well as ensuring the protection of information from unauthorized access. Zverev emphasizes that Russia, within the framework of the project, is ready to expand the geography of the use of its digital services in order to extend them to international routes.[2]
How is the digitalization of the Trans-Siberian Railway with a length of 10 thousand km
In early May 2024, the Russian government approved the third stage of an investment project to modernize the railway infrastructure of the BAM and Transsib (Eastern landfill). The implementation of this program is expected to increase the carrying capacity of these railways from 180 million tons in 2024 to 210 million tons in 2030 and to 270 million tons in 2032. Read more here
Russian Railways employees are transferred to Russian smartphones. Import substitution is estimated at 640 million rubles
In May 2024, details of a project to transfer Russian Railways employees to mobile devices running the Russian Aurora operating system became known. Purchases will take place in two stages. Read more here.
Russian Railways structures shared digital "pain"
Representatives of the IT divisions of the companies included in the Russian Railways holding held an open meeting in early April, at which, on the one hand, they reported on the work done, and on the other, they shared the problems that companies need to solve in the near future. The meeting was started so that Russian software manufacturers could offer their own products to solve the problems declared by Russian Railways companies.
 | Representatives of the IT market, different companies come to me very often and ask: "What do you need? We will choose from what you need what we can do, "Kirill Semion, head of the Russian Railways informatization department, explained at the beginning of the meeting. - Since we have a huge number of tasks, we have to answer that we are not a restaurant, we do not have a menu in which you can choose what you are interested in. Therefore, we usually go from what you can offer us. For us, the reverse dialogue is more interesting when we tell you what our goals and objectives are, what our questions are, and what is a priority for us. All this is the main goal of this event. |  |
Commercial transportation
In particular, the "Center for Branded Transport Services," which is engaged in commercial transportation within the framework of Russian Railways, announced the results of the activities of its marketplace for the organization of commercial transportation - it was launched back in 2021. During this time, the company has already attracted 2,650 users, for whom 4,600 cars were transported and 835 orders were completed. Moreover, all interaction with clients was organized in electronic form.
Another key project of the company is the Multilog system, which is designed to build a supply chain for multimodal transportation, that is, not only by rail, but also by road, aircraft and ships. In total, the system provides several roles for customers and transportation companies. Carriers determine their possible logistics routes, prices and possible volumes of transportation, and customers can draw up a delivery route between any points using the most efficient mode of transport for it with a pre-agreed transportation cost. Moreover, all interaction between the transport participants is organized in electronic form.
Now issues of international interaction are being worked out, but one of the problems arises here - electronic interaction with non-residents. Moreover, the "Corporate Transport Service Center" has its own distributed data register (blockchain), on the basis of which the company expects to build a system of smart contracts - this is another task facing this division of Russian Railways.
The problem for the further development of the company is also the exchange of digital experience between customers, since not everyone is ready to use electronic interaction, as well as checking the reliability of counterparties for multimodal transportation.
Transportation infrastructure
The "Central Directorate of Infrastructure" of Russian Railways has its own tasks: its specialists provide control, repair and, in general, management of the full life cycle of rolling stock and long transport infrastructure. Now the company expects to carry out a digital transformation of all systems in such a way that, on the one hand, to make the most of the capabilities of the equipment and structures already used, and on the other, to prevent accidents and make high-quality repairs on time. In conditions of constant operation of the infrastructure, it is necessary to restore the resource according to a previously agreed plan within a strictly allotted time.
To switch to the repair methodology for the condition, the company has developed special flaw detection cars, which about once every two weeks must travel through all the most heavily operated sections and determine their condition. They collect more than 180 parameters of railway tracks, equipment and wagons. However, no less data is collected using various sensors, which are located both on rolling stock and on infrastructure facilities. As a result of such work, a huge amount of data is accumulated, which can be processed and only nascent defects can be identified using artificial intelligence. And this is one of the promising tasks of the infrastructure division of Russian Railways.
Moreover, the company uses not only flaw detection cars for collection, but also UAVs for visual inspection of tracks and construction. Processing the collected visual information also requires the use of artificial intelligence technologies.
However, in addition to assessing the visual state, it is also necessary to develop mathematical models of all objects that would allow modeling the processes taking place and predicting problems. The company also still needs inexpensive tools to monitor the current state and quality of the repair work.
The infrastructure division of Russian Railways also requires robotic complexes for diagnosing underwater parts of bridges - now this topic has practically not been studied, and the reliability of bridge crossings depends on it.
Passenger service
However, the most noticeable activity of Russian Railways is the transportation of passengers on long-distance trains and on suburban ones. This is done by the Federal Passenger Company. And here one of the problems is the digital payment of tickets. Moreover, the indicator for long-distance trains is quite good - only 20% of ticket payments are carried out offline. This is facilitated, in particular, by the multimodal transportation system, which allows you to order tickets not only for trains, but also for other types of transport with various options for connections. Thus, Russian Railways sells 479.4 thousand tickets for other types of transport (not railway). Moreover, railway tickets themselves can be sold through partner ticket offices - there are more than 400 of them.
Another incentive for digitalization of payment is the possibility of planning travel, that is, receiving tickets for all necessary types of transport and additional services in the "one window" mode. The company even introduced "smart payment" technology, when the cost of the service provided is debited through the passenger's application for geolocation of the device and connecting it to special Bluetooth beacons to confirm that the passenger is on the route. True, so far such a system has been launched only on the Kazan - Kazan Airport route. However, suburban services are still paid offline by 90%, and here smart payment technologies would be very useful.
Technological sovereignty of Russian Railways
In the past two years, Russian Railways has not changed its development strategy, however, as Kirill Semion explained for TAdviser, the changed circumstances require the company to pay more attention to such a factor as ensuring technological independence. Now this direction for the company turned out to be more critical, as well as ensuring cybersecurity. At the same time, it is difficult to find solutions of the quality that Russian Railways needs on the Russian market. But new opportunities are constantly emerging. According to Kirill Semion, the domestic IT market has already experienced an era of stress, and is now ready to systematically and stably develop good corporate solutions that can be used, including in complex infrastructures, such as Russian Railways.
| | It is important for us to continue building and developing our corporate data management system, "said Kirill Semion. - Data is our primary IT asset. And we have it in huge numbers. Plus, operational work with data can improve the efficiency of the main business processes. Our largest task is to manage the railway infrastructure. Here we look forward to a complete transition to state management. We will never stop at the development of passenger services - this is simply impossible. Multimodal transportation is very relevant for this. We are working on improving them now. This process will continue and develop, but here we depend on the level of digitalization of neighboring industries. Our strategic tasks are the development of what we live now. It's just that all this needs to be transferred to a new level through the use of certain new technologies. | |
Transfer of 8 large IT systems to domestic software
On March 5, 2024, it became known that Russian Railways was transferring 8 large IT systems to domestic software. This is reported in the roadmap "New Industrial Software," which was approved by the Government Commission on Digital Development, the use of IT to improve the quality of life and business conditions.
As CNews writes with reference to this document, one of the IT import substitution projects of Russian Railways is the creation of an automated system for selling railway tickets and managing the Express passenger complex (ACS). The next project is aimed at transferring the automated system of centralized preparation and execution of transportation documents to the import-independent platform of Russian Railways (electronic waybill, AS ETRAN NP).
Russian Railways is also engaged in the creation of an import-independent automated system for operational transportation management and an import-independent system for managing the infrastructure of Russian Railways. The latter will have to include services for the formation of a digital resource and service model, a modeling and work planning service, an incident management service, a problem and change management service, and a management reporting service.
Other projects imply:
- finalizing and implementing a software package for modeling and forecasting passenger traffic, taking into account various factors affecting passenger traffic volumes;
- creation of an import-independent unified system of full-size metering of looms (EU POOL). Includes accounting for motor-wagon rolling stock (MVPS) and high-speed motor-wagon rolling stock of the Russian Railways fleet;
- management and repair of locomotives and wagons (three projects belong to this area).[3]
Transfer of 8 large IT systems to domestic software
On March 5, 2024, it became known that Russian Railways was transferring 8 large IT systems to domestic software. This is reported in the roadmap "New Industrial Software," which was approved by the Government Commission on Digital Development, the use of IT to improve the quality of life and business conditions.
As CNews writes with reference to this document, one of the IT import substitution projects of Russian Railways is the creation of an automated system for selling railway tickets and managing the Express passenger complex (ACS). The next project is aimed at transferring the automated system of centralized preparation and execution of transportation documents to the import-independent platform of Russian Railways (electronic waybill, AS ETRAN NP).
Russian Railways is also engaged in the creation of an import-independent automated system for operational transportation management and an import-independent system for managing the infrastructure of Russian Railways. The latter will have to include services for the formation of a digital resource and service model, a modeling and work planning service, an incident management service, a problem and change management service, and a management reporting service.
Other projects imply:
- finalizing and implementing a software package for modeling and forecasting passenger traffic, taking into account various factors affecting passenger traffic volumes;
- creation of an import-independent unified system of full-size metering of looms (EU POOL). Includes accounting for motor-wagon rolling stock (MVPS) and high-speed motor-wagon rolling stock of the Russian Railways fleet;
- management and repair of locomotives and wagons (three projects belong to this area).[4]
Russian Railways recorded a 36% increase in cyber attacks on its infrastructure in 2023. Who attacked the company and how
In 2023, 4.8 million attacks on the infrastructure of Russian Railways were recorded, which is 36.3% more than in 2022. This was announced on February 8 at Infoforum-2024 by the director of Russian Railways, head of the information security department Yuri Noginov. Of these, 3.12 million attacks were external (an increase of 65.5%), and 689 thousand were internal (a decrease of 33.6%).
The vast majority of external attacks occurred in sending letters containing fraudulent messages, intrusive advertising or links to malicious resources - there were 3.5 million such incidents. And the main internal incidents were attempts to infect viruses - 618 thousand of them were recorded.
If we talk about attacks on the perimeter of the Russian Railways infrastructure, there were 596 thousand of them, of which 203 thousand were DDoS attacks, 140 thousand were vulnerability scans and 72 thousand were attempts to inject commands into database queries (SQL injections). However, the perimeter of Russian Railways was attacked quite variably - almost 110 thousand attacks did not fit the general classification.
According to Yuri Noginov, the infrastructure of Russian Railways was previously declared a terrorist cyber group "IT Army of Ukraine" as a priority target for attacks. Its stated goal is offensive actions on the military and civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation, while it itself represents a distributed structure, which includes volunteers and amateurs - they are traditionally called "hacktivists."
The organizational core of the cyber group assigns targets for attacks by publishing their IP addresses, and distributes tools for committing destructive actions. Although the number of the group is indicated at 300 thousand people, these are subscribers to the official channel, which is watched by quite a few Russian information security specialists. They monitor the activities of the group in order to quickly respond to threats from its side. The co-organizer of the cyber group is the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov.
The declared methods of attacks of this cyber group are aimed at IP addresses and media effect, but the main methods of activity are more fraudulent than hacker ones - to deceive or blackmail citizens Russia to harm the railway infrastructure of Russia.
In particular, Yuri Noginov noted that 200 arson of relay cabinets managing the railway infrastructure was recorded. The most characteristic case is the recent incident in Podolsk, when the inspector of the transport security unit of Russian Railways Roman Boldyrev for 3 thousand rubles. arson relay cabinet, which led to a delay of two electric trains near Moscow for 20 minutes. The case is being investigated - the defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.
Although the number of external attacks on the infrastructure of Russian Railways is increasing, malicious activity within the infrastructure is decreasing, which indicates that attacks on the perimeter are ineffective, as hackers penetrate inside less and less often. This was achieved through the implementation of security measures and the creation of a security infrastructure that allows you to quickly detect malware, localize it and does not allow it to spread within the corporate infrastructure, said Yuri Noginov.
2023
The number of cyber attacks on the IT infrastructure of Russian Railways in 2 years has grown 20 times
The number of cyber attacks on IT infrastructure RUSSIAN RAILWAY January-November 2023 exceeded 600 thousand, which is 20 times more than in 2021. Such figures at the roundtable on facility safety critical information infrastructure () CUES at, transport organized by the Committee on Federation Council (Federation Council) Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, were cited by Ministry of Transport Dmitry Skachkov, Director of the Digital Development Department.
According to him, in January-November 2023, more than 30 "major incidents" were recorded during targeted attacks on objects of the transport industry. The increase in the number of attempted attacks "applies not only to Russian Railways," Skachkov said. The main goals of the attackers, according to the official, are gaining access to information, virus infection and DDoS attacks.
As for the main problems in transport organizations, in 60% of cases they become outdated passwords. The representative of the Ministry of Transport also noted "blind trust in third-party organizations," through which attacks are also carried out.
| | Russian Railways is one of the largest enterprises in the Russian Federation, and it has a very extensive geography, as well as a large range of devices in its network. From various types of control systems for the movement of rolling stock, cameras and ending with the ticket ordering system. Therefore, it is not surprising that the infrastructure of Russian Railways has become an object for hackers. The more services and devices, the easier it is to attack, since the area of the attack is greatly increasing, - said Dmitry Ovchinnikov, chief specialist of the integrated information protection systems department of Gazinformservice, commenting on the data of the Ministry of Transport on the growing cyber attacks on Russian Railways[5] | |
Russian Railways transfer all working devices to Aurora OS
Russian Railways are transferring all working devices to the Aurora operating system. The company reported this on August 11, 2023. Read more here.
Russian Railways employees banned from using iPhone
Russian Railways banned employees from using iPhones at work. This became known on August 9, 2023.
| | Yes, indeed, it is forbidden to use the iPhone for official purposes, "a source in the transport industry told TASS, answering the agency's question. | |
State bodies and companies began banning iPhones at work after the FSB reported disclosing a US intelligence action using the virus on Apple mobile devices. According to the FSB, several thousand smartphones of the American manufacturer were infected. In addition to Russian users, the special service also discovered a virus on the gadgets of foreign subscribers using SIM cards registered with diplomatic missions and embassies in Russia. We are talking about the infection of devices of employees of diplomatic agencies of NATO countries and the post-Soviet space, as well as Israel, Syria and China.
After this conclusion, a number of Russian ministries, departments and state-owned companies, in particular, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Rostec, and Rosaviatsia, decided to abandon the use of the iPhone for official purposes.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that employees of the presidential administration also cannot use Apple mobile devices for work purposes. According to him, everyone knows that "these gadgets are absolutely transparent," and therefore their use in official communication is prohibited.
The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, promised in early August 2023 that the Russians would not be banned from using the iPhone. The deputy noted that so far the question of banning the use of Apple technology is not worth it. At the same time, he then recalled the verification of the security of Apple products by Roskomnadzor, calling it a necessary and relevant measure.[6]
Russian Railways will spend 357 million rubles on the transfer of the investment IT system to 1C
On July 31, 2023, it became known that Russian Railways (RZD) an IT contractor was found to implement a project to transfer an investment information system software SAP from to a domestic platform. " 1C Initially, it was planned to allocate more than 475 million for the initiative, rubles but according to the results of the tender, there was a contractor who made a much more profitable offer. More. here
The details of the cyber attack on Russian Railways became known, because of which the site and mobile application did not work
In July 2023, details of a cyber attack on Russian Railways became known, due to which the company's website and mobile application did not work. According to a Vedomosti source in a company developing information security solutions, most likely we are talking about a DDoS attack. Igor Bederov, an expert at the SafeNet engineering center of the National Technology Initiative, agreed with the newspaper's interlocutor.
According to him, DDoS attacks have different vectors and are divided into levels 1 to 7 (L1-L7), ranging from simple attacks through fault tolerance to attacks that directly affect server hardware or software that controls an external site, system or server.
As a source in the company in the cybersecurity market explained to the publication, the attack occurs precisely at the L7 level, that is, attackers attack not a hosting provider, but a specific site and a specific application.
According to the newspaper, RTK-Solar is engaged in the protection of Russian Railways resources. The latter did not comment on this information at the request of Vedomosti.
A representative of Positive Technologies told the newspaper that the company provides Russian Railways with the necessary consulting and technological support in accordance with its appeals. At the same time, the representative of Russian Railways clarified that the company did not attract Positive Technologies for this situation. He additionally told Vedomosti that the company has built a comprehensive layered protection system against such attacks and RTK-Solar is not the only company protecting Russian Railways. The sources of the attack, he said, were dispersed around the world.
| | The attack once again turned out to be successful, because, as is usually the case with large corporations, Russian Railways was preparing for the "last war," a source in the information security solutions company told Vedomosti. - Methods that helped reduce symptoms in February 2022, such as blocking traffic from abroad via GeoIP, are now completely ineffective.[7] | |
The site and app have been down for three days due to a hacker attack
On July 3, 2023, failures began to occur in the work of the official website and mobile application of Russian Railways. The company confirmed the problems, saying that the computer infrastructure was subjected to a hacker attack.
According to CNews, the website of the largest Russian railway transportation operator has failed. At first, when trying to visit him, various error codes were issued. Users could order tickets for trains, but they were not displayed in their personal account after purchase. As of July 5, 2023, the Russian Railways website completely stopped opening. In addition, the proprietary application turned out to be inoperable.
| | Our website and mobile application were subjected to a massive hacker attack. We try to restore their work as quickly as possible. Ticket offices at stations and train stations operate normally, ticket sales are carried out as usual. We apologize for the inconvenience caused, the official notification of the railway carrier says. | |
CNews notes that the North-West Suburban Passenger Company (SZPPK), a joint venture organized by the authorities St. Petersburg and Russian Railways, responded to the incident. The SZPPK said that the failures may be associated with problems with Rostelecom"," but telecommunication the operator himself does not comment on the situation in any way. There is also no information about the timing of the restoration of the operability of the site and the Russian Railways mobile application.
| | Failures are observed not only on our site. Now we understand and will try to stabilize the work of the resource in the near future, - said representatives of the SZPPK. | |
According to CNews, Russians and guests of the country who cannot buy tickets at stations and train stations have to do this on third-party resources. However, in this case, passengers face overpayment in the form of a surcharge for the services of intermediaries.[8]
Russian Railways began to use a robot manipulator, which is engaged in the release of wagons. Video
On June 6, 2023, it became known that a special robotic system for automatic release of cars was developed at the Research and Design Institute of Informatization, Automation and Communications in Railway Transport (NIIAS JSC). This complex is already being tested at the Russian Railways station in Chelyabinsk.
As noted, the key element of the system is the advanced block of technical vision. To perform the operation of car release on the sorting slide, the robot needs to receive information on the position of the automatic coupling mechanism in space in real time. In addition, constant control of the distance between the handler and the coupler is required. It is these questions that solve the mentioned block, which includes high-precision cameras and a neural network data processor.
The NIIAS specialists were tasked with creating an information processing module that would provide high efficiency and at the same time have strictly agreed mass and size characteristics. These requirements were met thanks to the optimization of neural network algorithms for working on compact and low-performance devices.
During operation, the plant moves along separate rails that are located along the main track. After identifying the automatic coupler, the robot disconnects the cars using its manipulator. After obtaining the necessary certificates, the system will become one of the elements of the "digital railway station" - along with unmanned control of shunting locomotives, automated reception and diagnostics of rolling stock on the approaches to the station, etc. The use of the complex will eliminate the presence of humans in dangerous areas and make the process of dissolving railway trains more intensive.[9]
2022
63% of Russian Railways tickets are sold online
In 2022, about 63% of tickets for Russian Railways long-distance trains were sold via the Internet. Yevgeny Charkin, deputy general director of the company, spoke about this on July 13, 2023.
According to him, Russian Railways can sell tickets only electronically, but there are passengers who are not yet ready for this.
| | Are we 100% ready? 100% are ready. But there are people who still find it difficult to be completely in the digital world, who need to come either call the contact center, or come to the checkout and get physical contact with Russian Railways, RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. | |
Charkin stressed that the company is obliged to provide its services to absolutely all categories of citizens.
According to Russian Railways, online services allow you to make travel planning very convenient: through the official website you can issue tickets, including in special coupes for people with limited mobility, as well as the transportation of animals, additional hand luggage and luggage, choose an additional food service.
In addition, smartphones operating system Android iOS the official mobile application "Russian Railways Passengers" is available to users on the basis or. Among the useful features is the "Ticket Tracking" option, which allows users to find out about empty seats that have appeared: in automatic mode, the system will send a push notification if any of the passengers return tickets or the number of cars will be increased on the train.
In the app, passengers can also find current ticket prices for upcoming dates, station navigation, online scoreboard and answers to frequently asked questions.
In 2022, Russian Railways launched the ability for passengers to pay for train tickets through the fast payment system (SBP).
The company explained that when buying a ticket, a QR code will be displayed on the screen of the payment terminal, which must be scanned to confirm the payment. By the end of 2022, the feature was available at specialized ticket offices marked with a special sign at 12 train stations.[10]
The head of the Russian Railway reported to the Russian President on digitalization of the company
On February 6, 2023, the president Vladimir Putin met with the head, RUSSIAN RAILWAY Oleg Belozerov who, as part of his report, among other things, spoke about the digital technologies that the company is developing. In particular, he mentioned quantum communications the IT platform for building a resource management system for large enterprises.
| | We are developing quantum communications, we are fully fulfilling your instructions on time and on time, 2021-2022. This year we will complete another 1,400 kilometers, we are in second place in the world - 1150 kilometers. Already on your instructions, we are working with science and with higher educational institutions on the layout of quantum networks both inside and connecting to the backbone network. We will finalize and implement this program, "said Oleg Belozerov. | |
Putin praised the head of Russian Railways for the development of quantum communications:
| | The fact that you pay such attention to quantum technologies is very important. Thank you, this is very important not only for transport, for the hardware, but in general for the country, for the entire economy. | |
The head of Russian Railways also spoke about the company's work in terms of import substitution of software products. Russian Railways is engaged in the transition from the SAP ERP system to the 1C: ERP solution. Read more here.
| | We are moving on software products, they are ours, Russian. Together with Rosatom and Gazpromneft, we are creating a national platform for building a resource management system for large enterprises, the so-called ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. We signed an agreement, we are the parent company in an agreement with the Government of the Russian Federation, we are going exactly in the schedule. We will transfer everything to our domestic platform, "Belozerov said. | |
He also cited data according to which 74% of train tickets sold in 2022 were electronic against 57% in 2019.
| | At the same time, they worked very well with the government, combined information systems, and now federal beneficiaries should not collect a large number of documents - all this is immediately provided in order to sell a ticket, "Belozerov added.[11] | |
Russian Railways estimated at 6.4 billion rubles the cost of replacing PO IBM, SAP and Oracle for Russian systems
On December 1, 2022, it became known about the passport of IT import substitution projects developed by Russian Railways. As Kommersant writes with reference to one of the documents, the railway monopoly plans to spend 6.4 billion rubles of its own funds on nine projects to replace foreign software (IBM SAP, Oracle, etc.) for Russian solutions. Among them are locomotive metering systems, solutions for modeling passenger traffic and infrastructure management.
According to the publication, the most expensive project of 1.84 billion rubles provides for the development of a new version of the ASU Express ticket sales system. It will be created on the basis Red OS of database management systems "" and (). DBMS Postgres Pro Enterprise In addition, Russian Railways already has a license that allows you to use the database management system (DBMS) on any supported ones, OS the deputy general director confirmed to the newspaper. Postgres Professional Ivan Panchenko
All critical functions of Express-3 are planned to be transferred to the new version of the software by December 2024. The implementation of the project must be started "no later than the first quarter of 2023," the project passport says. The developer of the system, JSC All-Russian Research Institute of Railway Transport (VNIIZHT, owned by Russian Railways), refused to disclose information about the project. In April 2022, the deputy general director of VNIIZhT Elena Martynova told the Gudok newspaper about the work on the Express ACS. A new generation, "the material noted that Russian Railways plan to start decommissioning the Express-3 from 2024.
By the beginning of December 2022, the main information systems of Russian Railways operate on the z/Architecture platform, compatible only with equipment from IBM. The manufacturer stopped supporting its Russian customers a few months ago. When migrating from the IBM platform to domestic counterparts, you will have to replace most of the components of the IT infrastructure and rebuild the server and DSS of fleet of ticket sales and transportation tracking information systems.[12]
Deputy General Director of Russian Railways spoke about the upcoming plan to completely get rid of SAP
Russian Railways, together with the government, is developing a roadmap for the migration of Russian state-owned companies with the ERP of the German vendor SAP to domestic solutions. Deputy [2] General Director of Russian Railways Yevgeny Charkin spoke about this on May 31 at TAdviser Summit 2022 . According to him, work on the roadmap will be completed in the near future. Russian Railways will be the first state corporations to implement the transition from SAP to Russian software. Read more here
Russian Railways buys Russian software for 1 billion rubles
At the end of March 2022, it became known RUSSIAN RAILWAY about the purchase of a license to use database management systems () DBMS a Russian company. Postgres Professional According to information on the public procurement website, we are talking about a contract of 1.08 billion. rubles More. here
2021
Russian Railways buys 60 thousand. PCs based on Russian processors
At the end of November 2021 RUSSIAN RAILWAY , they announced the purchase of 60 thousand personal computers based on Russian processors "" and BaikalElbrus"." Deliveries will be carried out in 2021-2024, the deputy general director of the company said. Evgeny Charkin More. here
New digital services for passengers and the introduction of AI into management. Deputy Head of Russian Railways Yevgeny Charkin - about IT plans for 2022
Speaking at the TAdviser SummIT conference on November 23, Deputy General Director of RZHDvgeniy Charkin spoke about the main results of the company's digital transformation in 2021 and plans for 2022. The top manager recalled that in 2019 the Russian Railways Board of Directors adopted a digital transformation strategy, and in 2021 Russian Railways optimized this strategy in accordance with state directives . The key goal of its implementation is to transform the activities of Russian Railways based on digital technologies, effective internal processes and the creation of digital products for existing and new market segments. The company also pays important importance to state directives on import substitution.
As part of the digital transformation strategy, Russian Railways adheres to a platform approach. The company has 7 platforms in operation, said Evgeny Charkin. They cover all segments of Russian Railways, and on their basis services are created that should bring and bring the economic effect inherent in the strategy in terms of increasing income, revenue, forming new market segments, optimizing expenses, and increasing labor productivity.
Among the results of the digital transformation of 2021 from the point of view of freight transportation is an increase in the share of customers who have completely switched to paperless interaction with Russian Railways. There are already more than 90% of them. Charkin stressed that this is important for Russian Railways, and that in this case, the pandemic gave impetus to this activity.
One of the flagship projects of Russian Railways, the electronic trading platform for freight transportation, received serious development. The integrated system of interaction with customers is also intensively developing - the CRM system, where two new modules were launched, AI mechanisms were introduced that allow recognizing objects without human participation. A service for monitoring the fulfillment of contractual obligations based on smart contracts was also introduced . And within the framework of the Digital Railway Station project, execution control planning modules have been implemented at 66 stations.
As for the passenger block, there is also a high demand for paperless interaction and an increase in electronic sales. The share of these is approaching 70%, the deputy general director of Russian Railways cited the data. Both the client mobile application and the new portal, on which it became possible to order travel services in 2021, help in increasing this indicator, and a travel configurator was implemented.
| | From our clients there is a serious request for such additional services, - said Evgeny Charkin. | |
One of the interesting projects of 2021, the top manager of Russian Railways called the project in the Samara region. We are talking about the "MaaS ticket solutions" technology, which allows you to purchase tickets for all types of transport. It is planned to expand it to other regions. It is important here that all participants in the transport market move at the same pace in order to offer a comprehensive service to the market, Charkin noted.
The deputy general director of the company called the ecology an important track in 2021 for Russian Railways.
| | We made a serious groundwork this year together with colleagues from the FOIV, ministries. A service has been implemented to control and monitor the environmental situation, the state of hazardous production facilities, and fire safety, "said Evgeny Charkin. | |
Russian Railways is also doing a lot of work on artificial intelligence. In particular, speech services have been implemented to plan the work of locomotive crews. And an extremely important vector for the company is the departure from the human factor in the diagnosis of its infrastructure. Russian Railways will continue to develop technologies in this area.
As for priorities in 2022, firstly, this is the implementation of an end-to-end process for managing the life cycle of investment projects. The "colossal effect" that Russian Railways sees here is the opportunity to see how it can seriously optimize costs by introducing digital services throughout the cycle, from design to operation and decommissioning. In fact, this is the further development of BIM technology, explained Evgeny Charkin.
Among the priorities for the company are also optimization of management decision-making and planning.
| | From the point of view of the economic effect, we digitize any managerial decision we make: how this will affect the cost, the revenue component, - says the deputy general director of Russian Railways. | |
More than 10 digital tools were used in Russian Railways so that a million employees communicated kindly
Russian Railways seeks to build communications with its employees in such a way as to create a friendly internal environment in the company. Various digital tools are used for this. [3] Margarita Sotskaya, Deputy Head of the Employer Brand and Human Capital Development Center of Russian Railways, spoke about which ones and how at the TAdviser HR IT Day conference on October 20.
Russian Railways is the largest employer in Russia. The company employs about 1 million people, about 1.5 thousand different professions are represented. In such a huge, motley and geographically distributed environment, building internal communications is a non-trivial task.
The company has created an ecosystem of internal communications, represented by services related to two blocks: informing and feedback. The key tool in the information block is the employee's service portal. According to Margarita Sotskoy, this is a large internal IT platform, which all employees of the Russian Railways parent company enter. Initially, the portal was created to provide convenient online services, such as certificates, granting vacations, benefits, etc. And today it is already the main platform for communication between an employee and an employer.
Over the past year, 10-12 communication services have been launched on the platform to develop information and feedback. This is the point where synchronization with a large team takes place, the representative of Russian Railways notes.
Among the services already working, for example, "Career Navigator," when you can see which projects an employee can join. There is a mentoring service where there is communication between mentors and mentors, and where workers can seek advice from experts across the country. Among communication services, there is also a chat section where you can exchange instant messages with colleagues.
In 2021, the Active Worker service, an analogue of the Active Citizen platform of the Moscow government, was launched on the internal portal of Russian Railways, where an employee can initiate some changes in the company that concern him personally and vote for the initiatives of colleagues. Also, a blog section appeared on the portal in 2021, a representative of Russian Railways said.
From the point of view of social networks and instant messengers for corporate use in Russian Railways last year discovered Viber, says Margarita Sotskaya. It turned out that this is the most popular messenger among about 60% of the company's workers. As a result, it launched a channel of "folk" news, where general news is released, which the company wants to share with everyone, as well as news that employees themselves send.
In addition, Telegram the Russian Railways HR community channel was launched on what is happening in the company from the point of view, Human Resources Management but in the fall of 2021, a format was launched on this platform - a dialogue with managers. All employees of the company from all over the country are invited to participate in it in the form of a voice chat. Here you can ask a question to managers live without premoderation.
| | In a large organization, it is very difficult to build a direct dialogue with someone in Moscow, when the employee is in a very small city. We tried to do it. As a result, the format performed very well. We are receiving feedback from colleagues that this is great, the workers did not expect that any of them would be able to ask the person making decisions in Moscow to be heard and, possibly, enter the agenda, "says Margarita Sotskaya. | |
As for feedback, there is also a "hotline" for workers, which has been around for about 8 years. But in 2020, she was transferred to the internal system of processing appeals, leaving the classic Excel, in which it is difficult to process data and conduct analytics, said the deputy head of the Employer Brand and Human Capital Development Center of Russian Railways. In connection with the pandemic, the hotline with its own staff of operators was transferred to round-the-clock operation, which was very difficult. As a result, in 2020, twice as many requests were received than a year earlier.
Sociological research is also called an important feedback tool in the company. In Russian Railways, a survey service was launched on the service portal, which made it possible to verify the veracity of the answers received. Paper questionnaires that the company previously worked with do not always guarantee that they were filled out by exactly the right people, and not by any colleague who was instructed to do this for everyone in order to make life easier for everyone. An employee can enter the service portal only under his own login and password, which excludes such a situation.
Surveys that seem safe to workers are conducted on the service portal. In this case, no one can see who exactly answers, says Margarita Sotskaya, but despite this, research containing acute questions is carried out on an external platform, where authorization is not required. It gives you a better chance of getting honest answers. Similar surveys are conducted a couple of times a year.
Another tool is an online executive receptionist. Its creation was initiated by the heads of one of the production units. The peculiarity of the receptionist is that employees at large enterprises, especially in the outback, do not always have the opportunity to turn even to their first manager directly to ask him something. To do this, they may need to go to another settlement.
Sometimes it turns out that an employee from any corner of the country sends an appeal to the general director of the entire Russian Railways, and as a result, after ordeal, it goes back to the level of the head of this employee. The online reception manager solves this problem, and it is more relevant for enterprises, and not for the central office of Russian Railways.
The implementation of such a tool is associated with the need for its adoption by the managers themselves. Not everyone understands what another channel is needed for which you can convey appeals: after all, there is a personal reception, the ability to send paper appeals, a hotline. But those of the leaders who entered the pilot project, as a result, speak about it in a positive way, because they manage to remove at their level many questions that otherwise employees could send to the general director of Russian Railways.
| | Our Oleg Valentinovich Belozerov is very attentive to the opinions of employees. And it seems to me that it is great that every Monday on the morning "RAM" Oleg Valentinovich reads out the appeals of workers and asks colleagues - high leaders, their deputies to get involved and resolve issues, - said Margarita Sotskaya. | |
Therefore, many local managers understand that it is better to resolve issues on the spot so as not to be voiced, and they quickly turn on and resolve the employee's issue.
As of October 2021, the online reception is at the stage of "rolling out" and an active information campaign through all channels.
| | In all feedback channels, the key principle that we have been promoting for the past year is "talking just about the difficult" so that employees feel comfortable staying in our company, - said Margarita Sotskaya. | |
Creation of a national competence center for import substitution of ERP systems
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting of the Committee on Digital Transformation and Innovative Development of the Board of Directors of Russian Railways on June 21, 2021 approved the creation of the National Competence Center for Import Substitution of ERP Systems on the basis of the company. Read more here.
Digital transformation during a pandemic. Evgeny Charkin shared the experience of Russian Railways at TAdviser SummIT
Deputy General Director of RZHDvgeniy Charkin, speaking at the TAdviser SummIT conference on May 26, 2021, told how, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company turned even more to face the "figure," seeing what advantages this gives business.
| | The year showed that IT has made a serious leap from a supporting function to a function that gives long-term competitive advantages to everyone in the future, "said Evgeny Charkin. | |
The railway industry, as you know, was among the most affected by the pandemic. But, noted Evgeny Charkin, although she suffered, at the same time she gained a lot. From the point of view of passenger transportation, freight transportation was a decline, but the company had new customers who had not previously worked with Russian Railways, but decided to start doing this after seeing what convenient contactless services it had.
| | We have the best practices that we are ready to share, - stressed the deputy general director of Russian Railways. | |
Evgeny Charkin drew the attention of the conference participants to the strategic aspect of the transformations in Russian Railways: at the level of the company, at the level of the board and the board of directors, "tremendous work" was done to build a single chain of strategic documents. This is both a long-term development program linked to state programs and a strategy for digital transformation.
Importantly, all transformations are digitized in terms of the effects that the company must give to the industry, the state, customers. All these indicators are built in one chain.
Evgeny Charkin also focused on such an aspect as complexity. The company had discussions on how best to go: either quick victories in one element and then the transition to other business processes, or go large-scale in terms of changes. The company chose the second option for itself, and as part of the digital transformation strategy in Russian Railways, in fact, all business processes are undergoing changes.
At the same time, the regulations of Russian Railways state that not a single application for digitalization passes without reference to the process model. This is the key principle when the process approach is put at the forefront.
And the fundamental point from the point of view of the formation of a digital transformation strategy was that the "figure" and the changes it gives become a source of competitive advantages for the long term in Russian Railways. This means that the "figure" affects the business model and that you need to move away from the usual approach to transformations and go into the product approach and data. The latter, according to Yevgeny Charkin, are a key asset for Russian Railways.
The pandemic confirmed that the choice of approach was made correct, noted the Deputy General Director of Russian Railways.
| | Despite the difficult situation of last year, we did not stop any of the projects that we started. Of course, we have rebalanced in terms of where to now, in the moment to direct the main blow of the transformations. And this was done in the direction of contactless interaction with employees, clients, and partners. This is remote work, everything related to ensuring the continuity of business and health, the safety of our colleagues, partners, - explained Evgeny Charkin. | |
It is important to involve customers and partners in transformations, projects and services. Only then will there be the effect that is laid down. As an example, the speaker cited the Intertran project - a paperless organization of transit cargo transportation, which was launched in the Far East. It is run in conjunction with customers and partners. Already as a result of the pilot project, it was possible to reduce the transportation time by four days. When scaling this project for all transportation, the effect will be colossal, says Evgeny Charkin.
And one of the most important moments of transformation is corporate culture: its change is a key element. Russian Railways pays great attention to this. With the deadlines that the company has laid in its plans, the scale with which Russian Railways works - more than 1 million people in the holding, changes are impossible without changing the culture.
Apart is information security, which, according to Yevgeny Charkin, Russian Railways lays down in each process.
| | We are well aware that the pandemic, the accelerated pace of digitalization are both new opportunities and new threats that we face every day. Therefore, information security, data protection are our highest priority, "says Evgeny Charkin. | |
The deputy general director of Russian Railways did not bypass the topic of import substitution. The company has been systematically working in this direction for several years. During this period, she received "tremendous experience" in terms of regulatory support for the import substitution process. This is all a huge work done together with colleagues from the Ministry of Digital Development, the Competence Center for Import Substitution in terms of approaches to choosing domestic IT solutions, testing them, procurement, etc.
In addition, during all this time, Russian Railways has tested a huge number of domestic IT solutions and already clearly understands where there is already a step towards import substitution, and where joint work is still needed.
| | This is a matter of collective efforts of the state, developers. We are ready to help developers by issuing a high-quality order, - said Evgeny Charkin. - For us, import substitution is not just a replacement of one with another. The effect in the future of 3-5 years is very important for us, while we take this step. That means the new solution should be better than the old one. | |
The TAdviser SummIT conference, held in traditional offline mode, has become one of the largest in the history of its holding: in total, more than 700 delegates attended the event. Also at the exhibition within the framework of the summit, the most extensive exhibition of IT solutions in the history of the event was presented: suppliers of products and services deployed 21 stands. In total, about 100 speakers spoke in the plenary part and the five parallel sectoral sessions that followed.
Receipt of a loan of 8.9 billion rubles from Russian Railways from ВЭБ.РФ for digitalization
On February 1, 2021, it became known about a loan of 8.9 billion rubles, which Russian Railways received from ВЭБ.РФ for digitalization. The loan is provided at a preferential interest rate under the program of the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia to support the digital transformation of companies using domestic IT solutions.
Russian Railways will spend credit funds on the implementation of digital transformation projects, which assume:
- introduction of modern technologies for organizing the transportation process, management of transport infrastructure, personnel, electronic document management,
- creating a new generation of automated workplaces based on domestic processors,
- implementation of independent import-dependent software using digital twin technologies, the Internet of Things, big data processing, distributed registry (including blockchain), simulation modeling and machine learning.
Russian Railways expects that the use of these technologies will ensure the receipt of reliable information in real time about the state of the transportation process, the state of production facilities and repair work, automate routine operations and quickly make management decisions at a qualitatively new level.
| | Funding from the ВЭБ.РФ will support the process of large-scale digital transformation of Russian Railways, which will accelerate the company's "transition" to a "digital" railway to improve the passenger and freight transportation management system, improve traffic safety, ensure cost transparency, increase customer focus and labor productivity, - said ВЭБ.РФ Chairman Igor Shuvalov, whose words are quoted by the press service of the state corporation. | |
The total amount of the loan portfolio under the concessional lending program implemented by the Ministry of Digital Development together with the largest banks is about 35 billion rubles. The agreement between Russian Railways and ВЭБ.РФ is one of the largest, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maxim Parshin noted.[13]
Russian Railways creates a "Cloud factory of software robots" and plans to use it in its own structures
The company Russian Railway Technology"" (a subsidiary of OJSC RUSSIAN RAILWAY"") together with the development company LLC Robin"" are implementing a project to create a platform software robots for the industry transportlogistic. This was reported TAdviser to Russian Railways on January 26, 2021.
The creation of the "Cloud Factory of Software Robots" instead of a separate targeted robotic solution is pilot in nature both for the Russian Railways holding and for the Russian market as a whole. In the near future, it is planned to use this platform in the perimeter of the structures of the Russian Railways holding. In the medium term, the product will be presented to the service market for companies in the transport and logistics industry. Read more here.
2020
Russian Railways chief information officer Yevgeny Charkin was promoted to deputy general director of the company
In December 2020, Yevgeny Charkin, who since 2015 served as director of IT for Russian Railways, was appointed deputy general director of the company by a decision of the board of directors. Read more here.
Like a real IT company: Sberbank is trying to sell the introduction of 13 digital products and services of its ecosystem in Russian Railways
From December 2020 to March 2021, Sberbank and Russian Railways will study the possibility of implementation, assess the effects, and in some cases will conduct pilot projects on the use of non-bank digital products and services developed in the structures of the Sberbank ecosystem (more).
Russian Railways Chief Information Officer Evgeny Charkin shared the best practices for using AI at TAdviser SummIT
Speaking at the TAdviser SummIT online conference on November 24, Evgeny Charkin, IT Director of Russian Railways, spoke about the experience of using artificial intelligence technologies in railway transport. He noted that in connection with the pandemic, the holding somewhat rebalanced priorities in the field of digitalization, giving greater priority to technologies for contactless interaction with customers and employees, electronic document management, and one of the priorities is also artificial intelligence.
There are already many such projects at different stages of maturity in Russian Railways, says Evgeny Charkin. These are vision systems, complex systems for diagnosing the state of infrastructure objects, services for recognizing and classifying driver comments, intelligent decision support, software robots (RPA), etc.
According to the Chief information officer of Russian Railways, there is already a tangible effect from some projects. For example, due to software robots, labor productivity in various routine operations increased from 30% to 70%.
As for technical vision, the company uses and tests AI-based systems: video recognition of car numbers for automatic decommissioning of trains, complex systems for diagnosing the state of infrastructure facilities built on neural networks.
At several stations, a pilot is being implemented for equipment with technical vision of shunting locomotives. The system provides emergency braking in the necessary situations. The effect that is already achieved due to this is an increase in the throughput capacity of sorting stations due to a decrease in accident rate. The scaling of this service is planned for 2021.
During a pandemic, one of the key functions of the digital unit is to provide its employees with the opportunity to work productively and safely. When many employees now work remotely, the requirements for user support increase. To solve this problem, a chat bot with the possibility of voice dialogue and automatic processing of received requests was added in addition to ordinary channels in the unified system of support for internal users of the Russian Railways GVC. Russian Railways expects that this will increase the efficiency of processing user applications by 20%.
Evgeny Charkin dwelled in detail on the project of an intelligent assistant shunting dispatcher. Improving the efficiency of the transportation process is one of the most important areas of digital transformation, he noted. Therefore, the optimization of the sorting station, a key element in the organization of the transportation process, was chosen as a priority.
And the heart of the sorting station is the sorting hill, the train cars that come to the station pass through it to go further to the desired address. First, the train approaches the slide with a shunting locomotive, then disengages at the top point, and the cars move down under the influence of their own weight. And then the cars pass through the brake positions and fall into the switch zone, from where they diverge into the specified paths of the sorting fleet. On each track, wagons are assembled, following the same destination or in the same direction. Compositions are formed from them.
On the scale of the station, it is the work of the shunting dispatcher that carries the greatest potential for obtaining an effect, and it also bears maximum responsibility for making management decisions - it is the link between the end-to-end process of ensuring the operation of the station. Often, the dispatcher has to make decisions in conditions of very limited time. For such dispatchers, Russian Railways thought about developing a recommendation digital service that allows you to simultaneously analyze many factors. It would be especially valuable for novice shunting controllers.
As part of confirming the hypothesis, a primary prototype of the recommendation model was built: the trained model understands what is happening at the station and gives out predictions. The Chelyabinsk-Glavny sorting station was chosen as the site for the study. It turned out that the implementation of the model recommendations in practice allows you to reduce the average idle time of cars by more than 20%. On a network-wide basis, this would be a colossal effect, said Evgeny Charkin. There are other resulting effects.
Also, the Chief information officer of Russian Railways shared his conclusions from the experience of introducing AI technologies.
| | For the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies, it is advisable in the organization to create a competence center for end-to-end technology, which would accumulate all information about all the experience that exists in Russia and abroad, and would control the end-to-end use of this technology in all business processes. We have determined for ourselves both in strategy and in concrete plans that artificial intelligence technologies will work effectively in almost all areas of our activities, "said Evgeny Charkin. | |
Other findings are the need to monetize digital assets and future development.
Reduction in investments in digitalization by 5 billion rubles for 2021
On November 16, 2020, it became known about the reduction of the investment program of Russian Railways by 63.2 billion rubles. If earlier the railway carrier planned to invest a total of 742.8 billion rubles in various projects in 2021, now we are talking about the amount of 679.6 billion rubles.
This was reported by Interfax with reference to the materials of Russian Railways. They indicate that the costs of digitalization and the introduction of resource-saving technologies in 2021 have been reduced by 5 billion rubles - from 29.9 billion to 24.9 billion rubles.
It is noted that the costs were adjusted following a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Belousov. After this meeting, Russian Railways was recommended to finalize capital expenditures, according to an agency source familiar with the document.
Despite the decrease in investments in 2021, the volume of the updated investment program of Russian Railways until 2023 increased by 137.5 billion rubles. The company increased investments in the Eastern training ground and reflected in the document large-scale plans for the development of passenger traffic. Investments in the amount of 837.2 billion rubles are planned for 2022, and 766.8 billion rubles for 2023. The decrease in investments in 2021 is primarily due to the write-off of 40.7 billion rubles from the development of the Central Transport Hub, explains Kommersant"" with reference to the Russian Railways investment plan.
By November 2020, Russian Railways continues to develop a digital transformation strategy. According to Evgeny Charkin, Director for Chief information officer of the carrier, the introduction of information technologies in sales makes it possible to significantly simplify access to railway transport services and create prerequisites for the further development of electronic trading platform services and digitalization of the entire holding.
In November, Russian Railways began phased implementation of a digital customer service format at the holding's service sales centers (CCP[14][15]
How the pandemic affected the plans for the digitalization of Russian Railways. TAdviser interview with Evgeny Charkin
The transport industry was one of those that especially felt the impact of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Evgeny Charkin, Information Technology Director of Russian Railways (RZD), in an interview at the TAdviser online conference " IT Priorities 2020" spoke about how this situation affected the priorities of Russian Railways in the field of digitalization, as well as about the prospects for using technologies to counter the spread of infections. Read more here.
Russian Railways will continue to implement a program to implement BIM technologies
Russian Railways will continue to implement a program to implement BIM technologies, the press service of the holding reported in June 2020.
At the same time, the company admitted that in the near future there will be a reduction in investment in design. In total, this cost item will be reduced from 820 billion to 620 billion rubles.
However, during the construction of facilities, Russian Railways will also continue to use information modeling technologies. Since even at the project development stage, the customer sees how the facility and its technical characteristics will be operated in the future. The use of digital technologies brings significant cost savings.
Russian Railways transfers employees to Russian corporate messenger with video communication function
In mid-April 2020, Russian Railways began introducing the Russian corporate messenger eXpress, with the help of which JSC employees can communicate and conduct video conferences within the company and with third-party organizations. Read more here.
Russian Railways transfers 74 thousand employees to "remote"
On April 1, 2020, Russian Railways (RZD) announced the transfer of 74 thousand employees to remote work. This equates to almost one-third of the total headcount of a company with computerized jobs.
By the beginning of April 2020, the connection of employees to remote workplaces is completed, if necessary, their number can be further increased, the railway operator noted.
To organize remote work, specialists of the IT division of Russian Railways implement special applications on home computers that open access to personal workplaces, as well as ensure the security and security of transmitted data. If users' computers fail or do not meet the technical requirements, the company provides employees with the appropriate equipment.
In addition, together with Internet providers and other telecommunications companies, issues are being worked out to ensure the stable operation of the Network, expand the capacities of access channels and relieve congestion. It is noted that additional agreements to labor contracts are concluded with all those transferring to remote work, guaranteeing compliance with the rights of workers.
Also, 16 thousand students in training centers of professional qualifications, students of 24 general education schools and boarding schools owned by the company, and 18.5 thousand pupils of children's railways were transferred to distance learning in Russian Railways.
As it became known in early April 2020, Russian Railways, due to the situation with the spread of coronavirus, is considering the possibility of switching to part-time work. Russian Railways General Director Oleg Belozerov proposed introducing such a measure en masse, including for members of the board of the state monopoly.[16]
Russian Railways will train locomotive crews using virtual reality
Russian Railways announced an open request to find innovative solutions using VR and AR technologies for technical training of locomotive crews. This was reported to Russian Railways on the website of its automated system "Single Window of Innovation" on March 27, 2020.[17]
Applications for participation in an open request are accepted by the state-owned company until May 12, 2020 inclusive. Innovative decisions are being taken to participate, providing for the use of VR and AR equipment in the process of training locomotive crews. Russian Railways will give preference to innovative solutions that are at the final stage of development. In addition, the organization must provide these solutions and their prototype for trial operation and procurement of Russian Railways.
The state-owned company is interested in introducing innovative specialized training equipment into the training of locomotive depot workers, according to the explanations to the request. We are talking, among other things, about software and hardware complexes, VR, AR-simulators, modular-rating and interactive systems for training and testing.
| | The introduction of VR, AR simulators into the educational process, in particular a software and hardware complex to familiarize themselves with new series of locomotives and/or to troubleshoot the locomotive, will increase the efficiency of the training process by working out the skills of working with technologically complex equipment, studying non-standard situations in the operation of the locomotive and ways to eliminate them, - say Russian Railways. | |
As of January 2020, Russian Railways has already purchased several VR virtual reality simulators for automation and telemechanics services, paths and structures, mechanization facilities[18]
Russian Railways approved a "roadmap" for the transition to BIM
OJSC Russian Railways approved a roadmap for the transition of the state monopoly construction complex to information modeling technologies. This is stated in February 2020 in a message on the official website of Russian Railways. The implementation of the roadmap will increase the automation of processes and the efficiency of the company's construction complex, it says.
Russian Railways plans to start pilot projects using BIM by the end of 2020. And in the coming years, "a single industry digital platform for managing the life cycle of capital construction facilities will be created, ensuring the accumulation and exchange of data, their reliability and relevance," the article said.
Earlier it was reported that a Competence Center for the implementation of information modeling technology was created in Russian Railways. The tasks of the new division will include "the introduction and widespread use of advanced digital technologies for project management of the life cycle of infrastructure facilities," according to the material on the official website of the state monopoly. The center will attract specialists already available in the Russian Railways construction complex to BIM and recruit new employees with the appropriate competencies, added to it.
Digital Twin Rail Technology
The main article of the project - Technology of digital twins in railway transport
Russian Railways plans to use VR to train employees and is working on its own development
On January 29, 2020, it became known about the plans of Russian Railways to introduce VR into the training of employees[19]state-owned company said that they are eyeing both VR complexes and the content presented on the market for training workers in labor protection of the most traumatic professions. The company intended to equip representatives of professions with the greatest risk of industrial injuries, in particular, power engineers with the first VR simulators.
With the help of VR, Russian Railways expected to improve the quality of training in labor protection rules and instructions. The need for this was caused by the injury of railway workers, which occurs mainly due to unsatisfactory organization of work, lack of control over the implementation of technology, as well as non-compliance with labor and production discipline. Most cases with a serious and fatal outcome in Russian Railways are associated with a human factor, which the company expects to overcome precisely by improving the training system for employees.
As of January 29, 2020, VR developments have already been used in Russian Railways, which allow the bastebists to work out the operation to replace the switch electric drive, the tracks - to correct drawdowns and distortions of the track on crushed stone ballast by knocking out sleepers with electric shingles, locomotive crews - to study the procedure for fire of the ED4M electric train. The state-owned company has purchased several similar virtual reality simulators for automation and telemechanics services, paths and structures, and mechanization facilities.
In 2019, Russian Railways, through the Russian University of Transport (MIIT), began to develop its own virtual reality simulator for training in labor protection of contact network electricians using digital twins.
| | The simulator consists of a helmet and virtual reality controllers. It allows you to simulate three-dimensional virtual reality with the effect of full immersion in the technological environment, - explained Anton Zachinyaev, head of the regulatory department of the department of labor protection, industrial safety and environmental control of Russian Railways. - The use of 3D technologies will allow you to realistically recreate the execution of operations on the contact network. This will ensure that employees of traumatic professions are involved in the training process due to high realism and interactivity. | |
2019
Participation in the examination of the educational resource цифроваяграмотность.рф
On December 26, 2019, it became known that the University of 2035 and Russian companies launched an educational resource цифроваяграмотность.рф so that residents of Russia could learn for free the safe and effective use of digital technologies and services.
According to the company, Megafon, Rostelecom, Russian Railways, Er-Telecom, Sibur IT, Rostec Academy, HSE, Rocit and Russian Post, NAFI analytical center will be engaged in the development of IT solutions, the provision of online content, as well as expertise of its quality. The project operator is the University of 2035. Read more here.
Russian Railways transfers all service smartphones to the Russian OS
On December 24, 2019, it became known that Russian Railways ordered several thousand smartphones MIG C55 for its employees of the infrastructure complex, equipped with a pre-installed Russian operating system Aurora"." The carrier intends to transfer all service mobile devices to this platform in 2020. More. here
Agreement with NIIAS on the creation of a center for digital modeling of transport systems based on RUT (MIIT)
On October 30, 2019, Russian Railways, Research and Design Institute of Informatization, Automation and Communications in Railway Transport JSC (NIIAS JSC) and the Russian University of Transport signed an agreement on cooperation in the implementation of scientific and educational projects of basic and additional education. Joint projects will be implemented on the basis of the center for digital modeling of transport systems, which is planned to be created at the Russian University of Transport. Read more here.
Agreement with the Center of NTI SPbPU on cooperation in the development of digital modeling
OJSC Russian Railways and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University signed a cooperation agreement on August 29, 2019. Read more here.
Russian Railways will invest 16-18 billion rubles a year in automation based on AI and blockchain
A government order of March 19, 2019 approved a long-term development program for Russian Railways until 2025.[20]. According to the optimal scenario provided for in the document, it is planned to invest 16-18 billion rubles annually in corporate informatization, as well as 10-11 billion rubles in updating communication equipment.
TAdviser studied the material and highlighted the points related to the digitalization of the railway company.
Thus, among the key initiatives for the development of transport and logistics services, the holding provides for the creation of an automated resource for maintaining a single catalog of services in the field of freight transportation, which provides consumers with access to the entire range of services, conditions and parameters for the transportation of goods.
The key initiatives for the development of the passenger complex in long-distance travel include the digitalization of client services and business processes.
The Russian Railways foreign business plans to continue its development by expanding the geography of its presence, as well as promoting the "export portfolio" of the holding, formed, including through the development of IT services, the creation of cloud applications and digital strategies.
The Russian Railways development program provides for two scenarios - basic and optimistic. The total investment costs of the company in 2019 - 2025 according to the basic scenario is 4671.4 billion rubles. At the same time, the planned volume of investments is estimated at 3986.7 billion rubles. The total amount of financing of the investment program until 2025, taking into account the funds of other investors, is estimated at 8658.1 billion rubles.
The total amount of investment costs under the optimistic scenario is 5786.5 billion rubles, and taking into account the funds of other investors - 9773.3 billion rubles.
In order to improve the efficiency of the investment program in 2019-2025, it is planned to introduce modern innovative technologies, including information modeling technologies in the design and construction of infrastructure facilities, which will improve the quality and accuracy of the project documentation being developed. Russian Railways has already identified pilot projects for the development of railway infrastructure, the design of which is provided using digital modeling methods.
In addition, the development of a unified information system for the management of the construction complex continues in order to form a common information environment for the interaction of all participants in the construction process and the creation of tools for the effective application of the principles of project management and risk management. This system will be based on the standard processes of the stages of the production cycle for the implementation of construction facilities, a unified methodology and management technology.
In accordance with the strategy of scientific and technological development of the holding for the period until 2025 and for the future until 2030, the main directions of innovative development of the holding have been determined:
- development of transport and logistics systems in a single transport space based on customer orientation;
- creation and implementation of dynamic transportation process control systems using artificial intelligence;
- introduction of innovative systems of automation and mechanization of station processes ("intelligent station");
- development and implementation of promising technical means and technologies of the infrastructure of the track complex, railway automation and telemechanics, electrification and power supply, innovative information and telecommunication technologies;
- establishing requirements for the creation and implementation of innovative rolling stock;
- development of the traffic safety management system and risk management methods related to the safety and reliability of the transportation process;
- development and implementation of technical means and technologies for the development of high-speed and high-speed traffic;
- development of technologies for organizing heavy cargo traffic;
- improving energy efficiency of production activities;
- implementation of the best available technologies in environmental protection activities;
- development of the quality management system.
Excerpts from the Russian Railways investment program related to digitalization for the period 2019 - 2025 according to the basic scenario, million rubles. (without value added tax)
| Project name | 2018 (estimate) | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2019 - 2025 | Expected result |
| обеспечение технологической устойчивости производственного процесса, в том числе: | 91937,1 | 98265,6 | 102370,2 | 94613,1 | 91850,2 | 93541,2 | 96158,2 | 95100,3 | 671898,6 | ensuring technological stability of the production process by investing in updating the enterprises of the track complex, power supply devices, automation and telemechanics, enterprises of locomotive and carriage facilities |
| программа корпоративной информатизации (автоматизация перевозочного процесса) | 10081,2 | 14186,9 | 12214 | 12314 | 12414 | 12514 | 12676,1 | 12614 | 88933 | |
| единая интеллектуальная система управления и автоматизации производственных процессов на железнодорожном transport " | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 3500 |
| обновление оборудования и устройств связи | 5665,5 | 8030,9 | 8280 | 8203,8 | 8449 | 8598,5 | 8702,6 | 8995,7 | 59260,5 | |
| внедрение автоматизированной системы коммерческого учета электроэнергии на вводах подстанций РЖД | 1014 | 1048.8 | 802.7 | 879.6 | 1027.1 | 1133.7 | 1237.9 | 1373.2 | reduction in operating costs for electricity |
Excerpts from the Russian Railways investment program regarding digitalization for the period 2019 - 2025 according to the optimal scenario, million rubles. (without value added tax)
| Project name | 2018 (estimate) | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 - 2025 | 2019 - 2025 |
| Обеспечение технологической устойчивости производственного процесса, в том числе: | 91272,1 | 129532,7 | 153717,3 | 145161,5 | 574094,7 | 1002506,1 |
| программа корпоративной информатизации (автоматизация перевозочного процесса) | 10081,2 | 16886,9 | 17614 | 18414 | 79156 | 132070,9 |
| единая интеллектуальная система управления и автоматизации производственных процессов на железнодорожном транспорте | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 2000 | 3500 |
| обновление оборудования и устройств связи | 5665,5 | 11530,9 | 10412,9 | 10553,8 | 46196 | 78693,6 |
| внедрение автоматизированной системы коммерческого учета электроэнергии на вводах подстанций РЖД | 1014 | 1014 | 802,7 | 879,6 | 4772 | 7503 |
The Russian Railways development program notes that the implementation of measures and the achievement of the set goals are possible only subject to the appropriate development of information technologies that ensure business efficiency, reduce operating costs, as well as subject to an increase in focus on the client and labor productivity.
Key areas of information systems development include:
- creation of a unified information space for freight transportation and logistics to increase the profitability of freight transportation and logistics business;
- creation of a single information space of the passenger complex to increase the profitability of passenger traffic;
- the formation of end-to-end digital technologies for organizing the transportation process ("Digital Railway") to improve the efficiency of railway transportation and infrastructure;
- creation of a single integrated automated management system, optimization of corporate enterprise management systems, analysis and development of reporting to increase profitability of foreign activities, increase of efficiency of social sphere and corporate governance.
As expected, by 2025 the following target state of information technologies in Russian Railways will be achieved:
- platform solutions integrated with the company's production systems were introduced, their interaction with digital solutions of the transport complex and the ability to build digital services on this basis were ensured, electronic channels for interaction with the market (passengers, shippers, service companies), federal executive authorities and within the framework of cross-border interaction (transport corridors) were created;
- the technological processes of Russian Railways have built-in systems of the Internet of Things, big data processing, distributed register (blockchain), digital modeling and artificial intelligence;
- created a new generation of mobile workplaces and electronic document management in production and management processes;
- modernized computing and telecommunication infrastructure, providing a guaranteed level of availability of information services;
- centralized information security tools based on import-independent solutions have been implemented;
- systematic work with new technologies (search, testing, prototyping, implementation) was built and a high-tech business in the holding was developed.
The implementation of these plans, Russian Railways expects, will create the basis for new services and ensure a decrease in the share of the company's operating costs for information systems (up to 5% per year).
Improving the operational model of information technology management is aimed at increasing efficiency, ensuring cost transparency and increasing labor productivity. This, according to the company's forecasts, will optimize personnel and achieve savings in procurement. The potential assessment based on comparable companies is up to 15% of the optimization of IT personnel and up to 1.2 billion rubles of procurement savings.
Below is a list of services created on the basis of digital technologies.
| № | Digital Transformation Direction | Services to be created |
| 1 | Creation of a platform for managing and monitoring freight traffic | monitoring of the location and condition of goods, a comprehensive service for the transportation of goods "from door to door," legally significant exchange of electronic documents with transport participants, end-to-end use of digital transport data |
| 2 | Creation of digital tools for the organization of multimodal passenger transportation | multimodality, planning and support of "door-to-door trips," personalized services for passengers, electronic fare payment services, flexible tariff menu and loyalty program |
| 3 | Creation of tools for intelligent traffic control, digital modeling and monitoring of vehicles and infrastructure facilities | current data of transport infrastructure facilities, modeling of construction, operation and repair processes with reference to time and budgeting, transportation planning taking into account the technical characteristics of transport infrastructure, predictive diagnostics services, reliability forecasting, repair planning |
| 4 | Modernize Information Systems Architecture and IT Infrastructure Based on Import-Independent Software | Guaranteed IT Service Availability |
| 5 | Optimization of corporate management, analysis and reporting systems | Russian Railways health analysis services, self-service services for employees, information services (paid and free) |
To achieve the set goals, measures to develop information technologies in Russian Railways will be linked to the corresponding restructuring of the company's technological processes and changes in the regulatory framework.
According to the developers of the program, the implementation of information technology development measures will ensure the digital transformation of the holding and strengthen the position of Russian Railways as an industry technological leader in the use of information systems, digital technologies and innovative solutions, as well as enable the company to become a partner of the state in building a digital economy, modifying and developing digital technologies and the corresponding regulatory framework of the transport industry of Russia.
Information technology development performance targets are summarized in the table below.
| № | Name of target indicator | Planned value,% |
| 1 | Share of e-tickets in long-distance trains | 70 |
| 2 | Share of freight transportation services and related services available for electronic registration | 75 |
| 3 | Share of electronic documents in cooperation with participants in the transportation process (including international transit transportation) | 90 |
| 4 | Share of operations in non-human customer service business processes | 55 |
| 5 | Number of users in Russian Railways and subsidiaries that use domestic software included in the Unified Register of Russian Programs for Electronic Computers and Databases | at least 70 |
Russian Railways considers personnel as its most important asset. Taking into account the scale of activity and the status of the company as the country's largest employer, the main priorities in this area are the implementation of a balanced personnel and social policy.
In terms of social and personnel policy priorities until 2025, the work will be based on:
- introduction of advanced HR technologies (modern methods of training, recruitment and recruitment of personnel, the ability to independently form a social package, creation and development of technologies for quick and convenient interaction between an employee and an employer (service portal of an employee, manager and non-working pensioner), automation of HR processes, including based on Big Data technology, transition to the HR model of a business partner);
- development of existing and most important approaches for the employee (provision of a basic set of benefits, guarantees and compensations, annual indexation of wages, development of a built system of continuous training of employees, implementation of a system of independent assessment of qualifications based on professional standards).
At the same time, in connection with changes in technologies and the digitalization of processes in the future until 2025, there is a need for new professional qualifications, professions and positions, as well as the need to update labor functions. First of all, these are IT specialists, drivers remotely controlling rolling stock, operators of aircraft infrastructure diagnostics, managers, workers and specialists in the construction and operation of infrastructure of high-speed lines and rolling stock, etc.
2018
The EISCI processed more than 10 million requests
On February 28, 2018, the TransTeleCom reported that the Unified Information and Service Center (EISS) of Russian Railways processed more than ten million applications on passenger and freight transportation in 2018. Read more here.
Chief information officer of Russian Railways Evgeny Charkin - about the digital railway. The main thing from the report at TAdviser SummIT
On November 29, 2018, Evgeny Charkin, Director of Information Technologies of Russian Railways, at the TAdviser SummIT conference spoke about the progress of digital transformation and plans. The company has identified several main areas of digital transformation.
One of the directions is client services for passengers, where the key project for Russian Railways is innovative mobility. Within the framework of it, a digital platform of services for passengers of a new generation is being developed. The platform will give passengers the opportunity, for example, to book a ticket for multi-modal trips - that is, "door to door." By the end of the year, Russian Railways plans to launch a service that, in addition to the basic railway trip, will allow planning trips by bus, taxi, etc.
The company also develops global distribution systems that will allow connecting Russian Railways, agents, colleagues of Russian Railways in the transport workshop in Russia and abroad. Here the company looks not only at the internal efficiency of Russian Railways, but also at the fact that its technologies can be the basis for national platforms that are created within the framework of the Digital Economy program, Charkin noted.
One of the directions within the framework of innovative mobility is the development of services on board the train: multimedia content, purchase of goods on the road, tourist services, the ability to order food and others. These services are planned to be developed in 2018-2019. According to Charkin, for this, Russian Railways carried out a lot of infrastructure work, equipped train cars of the Federal Passenger Company with the ability to access the Internet in order to use all these services.
For customers in the field of cargo transportation, the anchor project maintains an electronic platform for ordering Russian Railways transportation, where more than 3.2 thousand customers work. It connects the services of the terminal and warehouse complex and others, including financial ones.
| | It is important that we create an open platform, we do not want to be a monopoly of all business services, market partners can connect to us and provide services to our customers, - said Evgeny Charkin. | |
A lot of work is being done on the internal services of Russian Railways. For example, on the development of a platform for the operation of infrastructure. The company integrates accounting systems, automated diagnostics systems for infrastructure and rolling stock, began to use artificial intelligence mechanisms to switch to predictive maintenance.
There is a lot of work with colleagues in FOIVs, including customs and tax services, added the Chief information officer of Russian Railways. This applies, for example, to electronic document management. Russian Railways was one of the first to switch to electronic tax monitoring: the department was given access to internal systems in order to become more transparent and simplify the process of work for tax authorities, says Charkin.
What is the difference between a digital railway and a non-digital railway? This issue was widely discussed in Russian Railways, as a result of which a separate KPI was created - more than half of the added value should be formed using digital technologies after the implementation of the program, says Charkin. Other related KPIs - the share of electronic tickets should grow from 51% to 70%, more than 75% of services related to freight transportation should be provided electronically, etc.
| | We see digital transformation not just as technological, but primarily as cultural. This, on the one hand, is a great opportunity for us, and on the other, a tremendous work that must be done taking into account our scale. There are more than a million employees in the Russian Railways holding, - said Evgeny Charkin. - We have to identify drivers, conductors of transformation at the middle level, who will carry it out in teams. They have to be identified, trained, motivated. The issue of culture is fundamentally important for us. | |
The same applies to processes. According to Charkin, Russian Railways has introduced a process approach, in which each process is decomposed into components, and target effects are determined. And digital transformation is at the exit over the processes, Charkin noted.
As for the use of new technologies, Russian Railways has launched projects related to blockchain and artificial intelligence. One of them, the pilot, is associated with the creation of a trusted environment of the carriage complex. We started with a wheelset - with a specific unit. Within the framework of one blockchain platform, Russian Railways, car fleet owners and car repair enterprises were united. If one of the chain participants needed to repair or replace the wheelset, then one of the chain participants can offer their services.
Due to this, the cycle of finding the possibility of repair is radically reduced, the transparency of information is increased and the possibility of unfair actions, for example, counterfeit, is reduced. Gradually, the platform is planned to be expanded to other areas.
Another pilot project is the transition to smart contracts on the blockchain. So far, there are problems with the regulatory part at the state level in recognizing a smart contract, said the Chief information officer of Russian Railways. The company is still developing a technological basis and expects that the State Duma will not greatly delay the process. In this project, shippers, a seaport and Russian Railways should unite within the framework of a single blockchain platform.
The company conducts a lot of work in the field of the Internet of Things. Russian Railways sees great prospects for the use of electronic seals in transport and logistics activities to control international transit transportation of goods through the territory of the Russian Federation. Few people think, but now the income from transit is almost equal to the income from arms exports, Charkin noted.
About a year ago, Russian Railways and Siemens launched a data analysis center. Data on trains that run along the central ring are collected by units into a single database in real time. Mathematical models of the condition of rolling stock units for predictive repairs can be built from them. Russian Railways conducts similar projects with other manufacturers - Transmashholding, Sinara. Gradually, this practice is planned to be developed.
Russian Railways conducts several projects in the field of speech recognition: for working with clients within the call center, recognizing the comments of drivers, comments when inspecting cars.
A lot of work has been done to launch trains without drivers, said Evgeny Charkin. One of the main obstacles here is the regulatory framework, and in other countries too, not only in Russia, he noted. There are many questions in the field of cybersecurity: any signal can be suppressed, drowned out. The task is to build a cyber defense system.
О TAdviser SummIT
TAdviser SummIT was held in Moscow on November 29, 2018 and attracted more than 700 participants - heads and experts of IT divisions of the largest companies and government departments of Russia, representatives of IT developers and contractors. During the event, the prospects for digital transformation of business and government agencies, the development of technologies, products and services were discussed. More than 70 reports were made in the plenary part and five thematic sections. The event was held in 5 halls of Digital October.
Allocation of 150 billion rubles for digitalization
According to a statement dated November 21, 2018, Russian Railways plans to invest a substantial amount in the introduction of emerging and development of existing digital services, said Oleg Belozerov, Chairman of the Board of Russian Railways. The investment plan is scheduled for the next six years and will amount to about 150 billion rubles.
Belozerov spoke about the company's desire to increase, in particular, the number of electronic tickets to 70% and the number of cargo transportation issued electronically to 75% over the next six years. These are only two of the key goals of the company for the development of digitalization, but he has not yet disclosed the rest of the investment areas.
Recent achievements of Russian Railways in IT include the launch of the electronic trading platform "Freight Transportation" (ETP GP), which took place in the first half of 2017. As of November 2018, the project has more than 3200 registered participants, and the number of transportation orders issued through the system is approaching 50 thousand.
The segment of passenger traffic of Russian Railways also does not ignore: the company is working on its implementation and the development of the Innovative Mobility project. The project concept provides for a number of services offered to passengers, which include, among other things, booking and purchasing all types of tickets for multimodal travel, as well as full planning and support of a door-to-door trip.
In the future, Russian Railways will continue to develop the Innovative Mobility project. In the future, according to Oleg Belozerov, each passenger will have the opportunity to issue a personal unified transport document. As of 2018, the implementation of this plan in Russia is impossible due to the lack of an appropriate legislative framework.
On the basis of the official website of the company, Russian Railways has launched a service for buying tickets for long-distance trains. The project allows you to choose the date of the trip, train, carriage and seat, order a reservation and pay for an electronic ticket in just a few minutes. This service replaced the ticket offices at the stations and allowed passengers to save time when buying tickets.
One of the directions for the development of digitalization in Russian Railways is the refusal to use software from foreign developers.
As of 2017, the share of Russian software in all Russian Railways systems reached a total of 60%. The company's plans include its increase to 80% in 2020.
Of the 100% of algorithms and methodologies used by Russian Railways, 90% are of Russian origin, but for equipment this indicator is at the level of 10%. In navigation and communication systems, domestic software accounts for 80%.
In 2020, Russian Railways intends to switch to 100% use of Russian methodologies and algorithms, increase the share of Russian software to 80%, and the share of Russian equipment to 60%. In navigation and communication systems, Russian software will already occupy 90%.
Digitalization of Russian Railways is not without failures. For several years, the company has not been able to complete the construction of a backup data center (data center) in Yekaterinburg, the construction of which began in 2011. It was originally planned to complete the project by the end of 2013, but later the deadlines were postponed to 2016 without explanation.
The reserve data center of Russian Railways as of November 2018 has not been completed. In early March 2018, the company signed an agreement for 74.5 million rubles. with the supplier - Infromsvyaz Service - for the implementation of a complex of construction and installation works in relation to the data center. The public procurement website has already posted a card for this contract, in which the deadline for its execution is limited to November 30, 2018[21].
Under Russian Railways, a 1C competence center has been created. Next in line is "Galaxy"
The Center for Competence "1C" was created in the CRC - the insourcing IT company Russian Railways, TAdviser was told in Russian Railways in September 2018. The state corporation noted that the RRC pays great attention to the development and implementation of Russian software products. Within the framework of the 1C Competence Center, all the necessary agreements with the vendor were signed and partner statuses were obtained.
In total, the RRC employees received more than 120 1C certificates, more than 30 full-time RRC employees were involved in 2017 projects, and the total number of employees amounted to more than 70 people, TAdviser cited data in Russian Railways.
The CRC automates and accompanies more than 10 information systems of the Russian Railways group based on 1C software products. During 2017, 6 automation projects were carried out, for example, automation of financial and economic activities, assortment management, EDO management, personnel accounting. By the end of 2018, it is planned to implement 15 projects.
Russian Railways clarified TAdviser that the projects in question are not related to migration from the SAP platform. Earlier, a source in the company told TAdviser that Russian Railways is considering the possibility of completely abandoning SAP in favor of domestic platforms.
Where exactly the mentioned projects on "1C" are being conducted, Russian Railways preferred not to specify, noting only that we are talking about different branches of the holding.
One of the main directions of the application of efforts is the creation of the Center of Competence for Galaxy Solutions on the basis of the CRC, added to Russian Railways. 314 OCRV employees took part in seminars on the products of this vendor.
| | Currently, they are analyzing the functional areas of possible application of Galaxy Corporation products in such areas as business performance management, production, enterprise resources, assets, EDO systems and others, the press service of Russian Railways told TAdviser. - Within the framework of the analysis, 4 pilot automation projects were identified, in the future a decision will be made to place the development environment in Russian Railways. | |
Russian Railways is preparing for a large-scale introduction of unmanned technologies
In the annual report for 2017, Russian Railways spoke about the next planned and already completed steps as part of its participation in the Digital Economy program. For example, Russian Railways has developed and approved the concept for the implementation of the integrated scientific and technical project "Digital Railway." The planned stages of this project include the approval of a plan for the development and updating of the regulatory framework in terms of the development and introduction of digital technologies into the holding's business processes, the formation of project management bodies based on a design-oriented approach.
It is also necessary to approve a roadmap for the implementation of the project for the medium-term period until 2020, including information security requirements.
In addition, Russian Railways will have to prepare proposals for making additions to the Digital Economy program in the Ministry of Transport and the subcommittee on digital economics of the government commission on the use of IT to improve the quality of life and conditions for doing business, as well as form an application for inclusion in the program of the sectoral direction "Digital Transport and Logistics."
Russian Railways notes that innovative technologies have already been used in finalizing the Elbrus agro-industrial complex program to build forecast schedules for train traffic based on simulation modeling.
With the help of digital technologies, information interaction with ports is also being improved, electronic document flow is developing, both technological and external with customs authorities and other participants in the transportation process.
As part of the participation of Russian Railways in the Digital Economy program, there are also a number of projects for the introduction of unmanned technologies, the completion of which is planned in 2019. Namely:
- Management of train traffic without a driver on the Moscow Railway. Within the framework of this project, bench tests of the obstacle detection unit were carried out, software and design documentation of part of the project subsystems were developed;
- Locomotive control without a driver for shunting on the October Railway. For this project, design documentation and software for the remote workplace of the operator were developed, a prototype of onboard equipment for installation on the locomotive was created TEM7A and stationary equipment was installed for preliminary tests of remote control of the locomotive based on video control;
- Development and implementation of an integrated post for automated reception and diagnostics of rolling stock at sorting stations at Bataysk Station of the North Caucasus Railway;
- Expanding the functionality of the integrated electronic system for updating data on temporary warnings of the Moscow - Uzunovo section of the Moscow Railway;
- Expansion of functional capabilities of the system of interval traffic control by signals of automatic locomotive signaling with data transmission via digital radio channel without the use of rail circuits in the Bolshevo - Fryazino section of the Moscow Railway;
- Create a center for automatic monitoring of motion parameters.
Sberbank and Russian Railways signed a memorandum of cooperation
On May 24, 2018, Sberbank and Russian Railways (RZD) signed a memorandum of cooperation. The document was signed by President, Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref and General Director, Chairman of the Board of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov. The ceremony took place within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
In the memorandum, the parties declare the intention of mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of logistics, exchange of experience in personnel management, development of modern technologies and other areas related to meeting the needs of clients of Sberbank and Russian Railways, as well as develop joint financial activities and build long-term business models, contributing to the progressive development of the country.
The financial block of possible cooperation also includes financing the investment program of Russian Railways through public capital and bank lending instruments, expanding cooperation on a salary project, preferential mortgages for company employees, expanding cooperation on Internet acquiring.
Interaction in the field of new technologies will include:
- interaction on the Digital Logistics project, including the integration of banking services with the electronic freight car exchange, data exchange, creation of models of ratings of shippers and freight carriers;
- the possibility of using Sberbank's IoT platform for Russian Railways processes (Smart Station project, monitoring of railway infrastructure defects), as well as interaction in the creation of the Russian Railways IoT platform;
- joint use of the capacities of the Data Processing Centers of Sberbank and Russian Railways, consultation and exchange of experience on cloud technologies and robotization issues, interaction on the development of new directions of the state program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" ("Digital Transport and Logistics"; "Smart City"; "Digital Health") and sharing experiences on the use of blockchain technology;
- cooperation in creating Russian Railways own cybersecurity system.
Creation of a project office for import substitution of software
In May 2018, a project office was created in Russian Railways to switch to the use of domestic software included in the register of the Ministry of Communications, the company said.
Russian Railways has developed an action plan aimed at preferential use of domestic software for the period 2018-2024. Its implementation involves the development of the holding's IT systems and improving their quality while reducing the cost of ownership by enlarging and reducing the number of systems, unifying them, eliminating duplication of functionality, etc.
Russian Railways told TAdviser that as of early May, the plan describes the general directions for the development of the company's IT infrastructure, and the company will be able to name specific projects with deadlines and partners later, as they appear.
Within the framework of the project office in Russian Railways, working expert groups were formed on the transition to the use of domestic programs in the classes of systems. As of May, an analysis of critical systems operated by Russian Railways is underway in comparison with the domestic software on the market included in the register.
The company's specialists organized interaction with domestic developers and software suppliers for the development of information systems in the interests of Russian Railways, "which are not inferior to the best foreign counterparts in terms of functionality, reliability, scalability and security."
Russian Railways notes that at the time of the creation of the project office, a significant part of the company's IT landscape was formed by domestic solutions. Back in November 2017, Yevgeny Charkin argued that in the IT landscape of the holding, more than 90% of the technologies on which key technological processes are tied, the fully Russian[22]
President Vladimir Putin instructed to prepare a plan for the transition of Russian Railways to domestic software in December 2017. The report of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications says that work on the transfer of Russian Railways to Russian software is being carried out jointly with the Ministry of Transport and the Competence Center for Import Substitution of ICT. Within the framework of this project, the directions of import substitution of software in Russian Railways were analyzed for criticality to ensure technical processes, the main directions of measures for import substitution were determined and a plan was prepared. A study is also underway to study the capabilities of Russian software developers for their software products for Russian Railways.
The Russian Railway ceased to understand when it finishes an unfinished construction of multi-billion DPC
As CNews found out, Russian Railways failed in 2016 to complete the multi-billion dollar project for the construction of its reserve data center, which had already dragged on for three years. Now everything indicates that the organization, in principle, has lost its idea of when the facility can be ready to accommodate IT equipment.
"While I find it difficult to name the exact launch date, I will definitely tell you closer to the case," said a representative of the Russian Railways press service within the framework of official correspondence with CNews. When asked by the editorial board regarding the reasons for the next delays, the interlocutor of CNews did not answer[23].
2017
Putin instructed to transfer Russian Railways to domestic software
Following a speech at a plenary meeting of the III Railway Congress on November 29, 2017, President Vladimir Putin instructed the Russian government, together with Russian Railways, to ensure the development and approval of an action plan aimed at preferential use of domestic software (PO) by Russian Railways.
In order to successfully work in the domestic market and increase the transit potential of Russia, domestic carriers need to constantly develop, increase speed, quality, convenience of servicing passengers and transporting goods, Putin said at the meeting. This, the president believes, means the modernization of management on the railway and the development of more effective methods of moving trains, the offer of new, modern logistics services.
| | To do this, it is necessary to use digital technologies more widely and when introducing such solutions, it is necessary to focus on domestic developments, on the use of competitive Russian software, Putin said. - I ask the government to carefully monitor these processes, including within the framework of the import substitution commission. | |
Responsible for the execution of this order, Vladimir Putin appointed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Railways President Oleg Belozerov. He set a deadline of February 15, 2018. Medvedev will monitor the implementation of measures within the framework of this order in the future.
Plans for Digital Transport Research Center with NCC and IBM
In October 2017, Russian Railways, the Russian Economic School (NES), the National Computer Corporation and IBM in Russia and the CIS signed a cooperation agreement. It involves the creation of a Digital Transport Research Center on the basis of NES to systematize scientific research and best practices in the field of the digital economy. Read more here.
Half of PCs in Russian Railways use OS with increased exposure to threats
About 50% of the fleet of Russian Railways client computers runs Windows XP, which is no longer supported by the vendor. This is stated in the description of the IT landscape of Russian Railways in the terms of reference for one of the company's tenders published in May 2017[24].
The vendor stopped supporting Windows XP in 2014. Since then, users of this version of the OS have stopped receiving updates that increase computer protection. Microsoft previously stated that without security updates, the computer becomes more vulnerable to viruses and other threats.
An exception was the release of Microsoft security updates for Windows XP in May 2017 amid massive cyber attacks around the world using the WannaCry virus, which exploits a vulnerability in Windows. Then Russian Railways fell under a hacker blow.
In Kaspersky Lab, by the end of support for Windows XP, the publication noted that when creating this product, programming principles were not observed that would help create an OS protected from modern threats, so threats hit it much more often[25] The rate of infected computers for Windows XP machines was twice that of Windows 7 and four times that of Windows 8.
In addition to the outdated version of Windows, office applications of Microsoft Office 2007 are used on Russian Railways PCs, to which vendor support should cease in 2017 and software updates, including security patches, will cease to be released. Russian Railways also has copies of an even older version of the office suite - Microsoft Office 2003, follows from the same terms of reference.
The exception from the point of view of the OS is the PC of the central office of Russian Railways, the main part of which runs under Microsoft Windows 7. But it also mainly uses the Microsoft Office 2007 office suite.
Russian Railways told TAdviser that as of June 2017, their organization has a total of more than 200 thousand PCs. The company is gradually replacing old PCs with outdated versions of Windows with new ones, with the current version of the operating system, added to Russian Railways. At the same time, the company emphasized that the entire existing PC fleet is under reliable layered protection, which includes both technical means - for example, modern antivirus solutions from Kaspersky Lab and means of countering network attacks, and organizational - restrictions on interaction with Internet resources, which repeatedly reduces the likelihood of exploiting vulnerabilities inherent in old OS.
The development of "cyber pandemics" is also opposed by the segmentation of the corporate network and modern means of monitoring and responding to information security events, they say in Russian Railways.
| | The company is considering various options for updating the IT landscape, including domestic Linux builds. Unfortunately, such a transition is limited by the rich heritage of Windows applications, the Russian Railways press service told TAdviser. | |
However, when developing new information systems, the possibility of moving towards "lightweight" clients with the ability to work under Linux will be taken into account, the company says.
There are plans to replace the outdated Microsoft Office 2007 package in Russian Railways for a limited number of office packages of "professional users," office workers and top managers, which make up less than 10% of the total number of workplaces. For most users, it is possible to replace office packages with domestic or open source packages, said TAdviser in Russian Railways.
Russian Railways will transfer its enterprises from SAP to 1C in order to import substitution and save
In May 2017, on St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) RUSSIAN RAILWAY and "" 1C signed a cooperation agreement. It is aimed at supporting the implementation of the foreign import substitution strategy, ON the development and implementation of solutions on the "" platform in 1C: Enterprise Russian Railways, follows from the official message of the companies.
The chief information officer of Russian Railways Evgeny Charkin told TAdviser that Russian Railways plans to replace SAP it with parts of its enterprises by implementing a two-level strategy in the region. ERP It provides for the use of SAP in large enterprises with complex processes, and 1C in small enterprises with typical processes.
See more about the project here.
2016: Plan until 2020: share of domestic software - 80%, equipment - 60%
On May 23, 2016, it became known about the plans of Russian Railways to increase the share of Russian software in its IT system to 80% in four years. In the case of IT equipment, a figure of 60% is expected. This statement was made by Russian Railways Information Technology Director Yevgeny Charkin during the IT + Sovereignty forum, the Russian Information Agency reports to TASS.
| | If we talk about our plans, then by 2020 we plan that 100% of algorithms and techniques will be Russian, 80% of software will be Russian. In terms of hardware, I really hope this figure will be 60%, but for this you need to make a very serious breakthrough, "Charkin said. | |
According to him, Russia is far behind Western countries in terms of equipment production, but Russian Railways is still trying to give preference to domestic assembly if possible.
By May 2016, the Russian Railways IT system uses 90% of algorithms and techniques developed by Russian companies. With regard to software and equipment, the share of domestic solutions is 30% and 10%, respectively. At the same time, 80% of the PCS has been transferred to domestic platforms, said Evgeny Charkin.
He added that Russian Railways, being a state-owned company, is interested in supporting the state to finance developers of high-performance DBMS and an element base for hardware.
| | From the point of view of the software, there is a strict requirement - intellectual property should be transferred to Russian Railways regardless of external contractors, - said Charkin. | |
He recalled that Russian Railways embarked on the path of import substitution in 2007, doing so for three main reasons: independence and industrial safety, social factor and economic feasibility (domestic software developments should be an order of magnitude cheaper than Western ones).[26]
2013
PC and Office Equipment Fleet Update
In April 2013, Russian Railways spoke to TAdviser about plans to spend more than 600 million rubles on updating the computer fleet and office equipment in its territorial divisions.
The largest one-time purchase of equipment was the purchase of over 10 thousand HP Compaq Pro 6300 monoblocks to equip employees' jobs as part of the Russian Railways informatization program for 2013, which cost about 300 million rubles, said the source TAdviser.
Together with these monoblocks, Russian Railways employees received about 1.7 thousand Xerox printers and more than 2 thousand Fujitsu scanners .
Computers and office equipment within the framework of this project were planned to be delivered to Russian Railways branches in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Khabarovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by the end of November 2013.
Data Center Upgrade
In 2013, Russian Railways allocated about 2 billion rubles for the modernization of the Main Computing Center and its structural units. Learn more about the project.
2012
PC and Office Equipment Fleet Update
In 2012, Russian Railways "costs for computers and office equipment exceeded 1 billion rubles. More than 28 thousand were delivered to the company's branches to equip workplaces as part of the informatization program. PCs with monitors, more than 5 thousand printers and about 1.5 thousand scanners.
IT budget
According to the Chief information officer of Russian Railways Alexei Illarionov, the cost of IT in the company is "0.6-0.7%, a maximum of 1% of all capital expenditures of the holding." In total, in 2012, Russian Railways planned to allocate 18 billion rubles to IT.
At the same time, Illarionov noted that the IT budget is reduced annually. This is due to the overall optimization of the entire IT infrastructure.
2010: IT infrastructure of Russian Railways: 4,000 systems and 12,000 employees
In 2010, among 4 thousand information systems of Russian Railways there are "unprecedented in size and unparalleled in the world," said Alexey Illarionov, Chief information officer of the company. As examples of such IP, he cited the management of freight and passenger transportation and technological document management.[27]
| | Russian Railways operates one of the largest information complexes in the country, "he said at the Infotrans conference. - 64 mainframe computers, more than 300 corporate servers, storage capacity - more than 2 PB, more than 280 thousand PC. We have 12 thousand employees engaged in the informatization of the company. More than 4 thousand information systems (IS) are operated, all of them have a different scale, but among them there are unprecedented in size and have no analogues in the world | |
Illarionov began listing IS with a freight transportation management complex. "Every day it provides processing of over 6 million operations with rolling stock," he estimated. "In 2010, we implemented a pilot project of an automated system to optimize the distribution of private cars (i.e. freight cars with an owner, note CNews) and provide them with the declared need of shippers." According to Illarionov, the issue of improving efficiency arose after the transition of all cars to private ownership.
Then Illarionov spoke about the management of passenger traffic.
| | This is a fairly large information complex that provides ticket sales, fleet management, "he said. - ACS "Express" is actively developing, many new opportunities have appeared in it, in particular, support for ticket sales via the Internet. In the nine months of 2010, we sold more than 5.5 million tickets, which is twice the figure of last year. The company's electronic technological document management system has been tested with a load of about 280 million documents with EDS. By the scale of the IT service management project, as far as I know, we are the largest in the world | |
Having listed the most significant projects for Russian Railways, Alexei Illarionov proposed using the developments of Russian Railways outside the transport sector. "Our development and implementation center provided full control over key developments and significantly reduced our dependence, including financial, on external developers," he said. "We have the opportunity to use this potential for the external market."
| | Perhaps the proposal of a new format of interaction with our partners, - Chief information officer developed the idea. - We are often perceived as a consumer of solutions. I think that it is quite promising for us to move to a partnership for the joint provision of IT services. A fairly large number of systems developed in Russian Railways are finished products | |
According to Illarionov, from Russian Railways, many participants in the transport market and government agencies could quickly get adequate management tools.
IT passport of projects in Russian Railways
{{# ITProj: Russian Railways (RZD)}}
Notes
- ↑ Russia and China intend to increase traffic and the number of flights
- ↑ Dmitry Zverev spoke about the role of digital transformation of railway transport in the Asia-Pacific region
- ↑ Eight Russian Railways information systems move to Russian IT platforms
- ↑ Eight Russian Railways information systems move to Russian IT platforms
- ↑ The number of attacks on the infrastructure of Russian Railways increased 20 times compared to 2021
- ↑ The source learned about the ban on the use of iPhone for official purposes in Russian Railways
- ↑ Pro-Ukrainian attackers are behind the DDoS attack on Russian Railways
- ↑ The Russians were left without train tickets. Russian Railways website will crash for the third day in a row
- ↑ Russian Railways plans to replace people with robots in dangerous areas of work and has already begun testing a robotic manipulator at a station in Chelyabinsk
- ↑ Russian Railways explained why they did not completely switch to online ticket sales
- ↑ Meeting with the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov
- ↑ Tickets will go from another platform
- ↑ ВЭБ.РФ provided the first funds to finance the digital transformation of Russian Railways under the program of the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia
- ↑ ). Russian Railways cut the investment program for 2021 by 63.2 billion rubles.
- ↑ Passenger will be. Russian Railways turned to people with investments
- ↑ Almost a third of all Russian Railways employees with computerized jobs are transferred to "remote work"
- ↑ Use of VR- and AR-technologies in technical training of locomotive crews
- ↑ Reality simulator.
- ↑ of the Reality Simulator. The
- ↑ The long-term development program of OJSC Russian Railways until 2025 was approved
- ↑ Russian Railways will spend 150 billion on digitalization
- ↑ Head of IT in Russian Railways explained how the corporation is turning into a "digital railway."
- ↑ Russian Railways ceased to understand when he would finish the long-term construction of a multi-billion dollar data center
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ The end of the Windows XP era (2001-2014).
- ↑ Russian Railways plans to increase the share of domestic software to 80% by 2020, and equipment to 60%
- ↑ IT infrastructure of Russian Railways: 4,000 systems and 12,000 employees
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