Yeah, they're basically the alternate reality where cars never replaced trains even a little. Which is really cool honestly, I'd love to visit as soon as they stop being fascistoid dickheads.

We'll see how their grip on Syria slipping and their currency giving out while they get a favourable US administration at the same time plays out.

Can't run trains without bearings for the train wheels and nearly all of those kinds of bearings are made in the west.

Obviously the "4 days from collapse" in that article was exaggerated but the lack of maintenance parts, like bearings, is obviously taking its toll on the Russian train system.

Oh and China can't make good ones either. They found that out the hard way when they screwed Germany.

They have a huge swath of land that to drive it by truck would make US longhaul trucking look like a piece of cake.

The Far East needs infrasfructure if they are going to be sending stuff in the St. Petersburg and Moscow direction. Otherwise they will only ever have one or two real buyers of their products, China and North Korea.

A train only needs one crew of 2 or 3 in transit, to carry the same load as 100 truck driver crews. So the fact that they are letting their railroads rot is going to bite them in the ass 100-fold if they think over-the-road freight is going to replace it.

This data doesn't really make sense... Unless it's missing data from December for all years and most of the drop happens then, none of the year ends match the following year's beginning.

But why were the Decembers cut off? Those seem to be the most interesting months...

Looks good. What you are seeing for 2024 is a clear increased level of traffic, because Russian production is going up.
Saying otherwise is a lie, and if you do that, you will go to jail.
Regards your local chief of propaganda.