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Bira-Kharabovsk rail traffic restored in Jewish Autonomous Rgn

The restoration efforts on the event-numbered track continue

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, March 11 (Itar-Tass) — Train traffic has been restored on one of two rail tracks in the Jewish Autonomous Region after two freight trains’ collision, the Russian Railways company (RZD) told Itar-Tass.

“The traffic on an odd-numbered track on the Bira-Khabarovsk section was restored at 13:55 MSK,” an RZD official said. According to him, passenger train No 133 running on the route Vladivostok-Penza, No 239 - Vladivostok-Moscow and No 663 - Khabarovsk-Chegdomyn have been dispatched to their destinations.

At the Aur station, repair trains of the Obluchye, Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk-2 and Litovko stations are working. “The odd-numbered track was cleared and repaired, electricity supply was restored on order to organise train traffic,” according to RZD.

The restoration efforts on the event-numbered track continue.

The incident in the Jewish Autonomous Region took place at 01:46 MSK on Sunday at the Aur station on the Bira-Khabarovsk double-track electrified railway section. A total of 26 wagons of a freight train, most of which were loaded with coal, derailed there.

At the same time another freight train was heading towards it on the adjacent track. It was impossible to avoid a collision, as a result of which the oncoming train’s four wagons and locomotive derailed, the RZD source said. The engineer and assistant engine driver got minor injuries in the incident. “They have received the necessary medical assistance,” the company representative said, pledging that “there is no threat to ecology.”

A total of 350 metres of railway tracks, as well as four transmission line poles were damaged in the incident. Nine passenger trains have been delayed on the route because of the collision and emergency repair operations.

The Far Eastern Transport Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) conducts pre-investigation checks into the incident, on the results of which a procedural decision is to be made.

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