In the New Year, the railways work, as always, around the clock and uninterrupted, providing transportation of goods and passengers. However, holidays traditionally affect loading volumes. Many enterprises "go on vacation" and cargo traffic in the first decade of January decreases because of this. Nevertheless, the CFTO reported that bulk cargoes will be presented in the same volumes.

In December, automatic approval of applications for the transportation of goods in domestic traffic was introduced, it will help to relieve the tension with loading that existed in previous years. As for the road network, the situation in the regions is different. "In 2017, the Kuibyshev road is projected to load at the level of 65 million tons.

The forecast is optimistic, given the dynamics of loading in December and customers' plans for the near future. In particular, in January we plan an average daily loading of more than 180 thousand tons, but, according to updated data, the cargo base at the moment is already 184 thousand tons on average per day. This makes it possible to predict the fulfillment of the loading plan as a whole on the road at least below the level of 2016," said Igor Khakhulin, head of the Kuibyshev TCFTO. During the holidays, the loading of the petrochemical complex enterprises is not stopped.

According to Oleg Kulakov, Deputy Head of the Transport Department of PJSC KuibyshevAzot (Togliatti), the company operates around the clock and holidays will not be an exception. Monthly loading of caprolactam, ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers will be about 160 thousand tons.

"During the first decade of January, we plan to ship at least 50 thousand tons of products," Oleg Kulakov explained. There are also optimistic plans for the South Ural Railway.

"Next year, the expected volume of loading is more than 83 million tons, this will ensure positive dynamics to the level of 2016," said Alevtina Marinina, head of the Department of monitoring and marketing of cargo transportation of the South Ural TCFTO. – The work of the road in the first decade of January will be quite stressful. But our main shipper – the metallurgical complex – promises the usual regime and round-the-clock loading. As for mineral and construction cargo, there may be problems with the provision of rolling stock and risks due to the lack of concluded contracts."

In the Sverdlovsk TCFTO, it is believed that loading will decrease slightly in the first decade of the new year. This is due to a number of reasons, including the accident at the Lokosovsky gas processing plant, the modernization of production at the Antipinsky Gas Processing Plant, as well as the transition of oil from rail transport to pipeline transport. The head of the transport logistics department of the largest Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine, Yuri Savin, noted that the loading of ferrous metals in January will remain at the level of December and will amount to 1 million 100 thousand tons. According to him, in the first decade of January it will be less than in the next two.

"However, the plant has a monthly production schedule, and we cannot violate it," Yuri Savin said. – After all, it may also happen that if we do not complete it in one day, we will not catch up until the end of the month. Therefore, we expect the output of products so that, despite a slight decrease in the first days of January, we will generally fulfill the loading plan."

According to the North Caucasus Territorial Center of Branded Transport Services, in the first decade of January, 91.3 thousand tons are expected to be loaded on the road, which is 102.8% compared to the same period in 2016. It is planned that the main nomenclatures will be oil and petroleum products, grain and ferrous metals.

Railwaymen and adjacent port workers will be supported. "Work on New Year's holidays will be carried out around the clock, including on New Year's Eve," said Vyacheslav Bobrov, Deputy Director for Commercial Work and Operation of JSC Tuapse Commercial Sea Port. "The wagons will be processed, and crews will be on duty in case of any accidents." In short, the winter holidays promise to be hot.