Russian railway trains have carried over 74 million passengers since year start

Russian long-distance trains have carried more than 74 million passengers during the seven months of this year, almost 4 percent over the last year's figure, Railways Minister Gennady Fadeyev said on Friday.

"The task we set ourselves is to find a proper combination of prices and service quality and to take market factors that influence the demand into account. The results of the work done in the first half of the year show that the new approaches to work are producing good results," the minister said.

Among the achievements he made special stress on the resumption of the through traffic of passenger trains in Chechnya.

The minister said also that the passenger car fleet would be renewed considerably in the near future. By the end of the year 450 new cars for long-distance voyages will be purchased, and 950 cars are to be bought in 2004.