BRICS TRANSPORT

Currently, the problem of training highly skilled, competitive specialists equipped with competencies necessary for their future professional activity is of particular relevance. This is key to building a talent pipeline in the transport industry in general and in the railway sector in particular where the activities of the majority of workers involve providing safety and continuity of operations. One of the topical issues is to study their values and meaning domain and motivational attitudes to their future profession as an opportunity to develop techniques of psychological and pedagogical support aimed at forming stable internal motives and optimizing the professional development of future specialists in the transport industry. The purpose of the study is to explore the specifi c features of the values and meaning domain and motivation of future specialists in the transport industry. In order to study the purpose-in-life orientations, personality traits and motivation of future specialists in the transport industry, a study was conducted with the participation of 50 people aged 20 to 24 years. The following methods were used: the Purpose-in-Life (PIL) Test by D. Crumbaugh and L. Maholick adapted by D. A. Leontiev; the questionnaire for the assessment of personality traits of a professional (LOP) by I.G. Senin and V.E. Oryol; and the Motivation for Success and Fear of Failure (MUN) method by A. A. Rean. The results for interpretation were obtained by mathematical and statistical data processing using correlation analysis (the Pearson correlation criterion). The sense of purpose in the students is associated with the ability to identify signifi cant conditions for achieving goals and everything that happens to them contributes to their personal growth. The more the students perceive their lives as emotionally intense and interesting, the less they tend to perceive their educational and professional activities as a source of stress. Conclusions: Students with clear goals for the prospects of their future professional self-realisation tend to show internal motives for achieving results to a greater extent. The feeling of meaningfulness and productivity of the students’ lives is associated with tension they experience in the learning process, conscious control of their actions and behaviour.

The construction of the fi rst high-speed railway in Russia is long overdue. Such a project would be an organic continuation and a new turn in the one and a half century history of Russian railway workers’ struggle to increase train speeds on the country’s railways.

The commissioning of the Big Circle Line in Moscow, some sections of which were laid jointly with Chinese underground builders, provided the fi rst experience of interaction with foreign construction contractors on the Moscow Metro. The paper investigates this experience which is of value for the development of such works in the future. The analysis was carried out on the basis of scientifi c and technical documentation on certain facilities, the progress and results of construction and installation works, and information on other events. The paper describes the facilities where construction and installation works were carried out by joint efforts and shows the peculiarities of interaction between Russian and foreign (Chinese) metro builders on a number of sections of the Big Circle Line of the Moscow Metro. The achieved results are demonstrated by the example of individual underground stations. The study reveals the peculiarities of material and technical support of works on the sections constructed by Chinese construction contractors. The mutual exchange of experience, technologies, and work management practices along with the application of various tunnel boring machines from both countries (Russia and the PRC) has yielded fruitful results, demonstrated the possibility and effi ciency of the direct engagement of foreign tunnel builders at Russian sites in close cooperation with their Russian counterparts, and revealed a scheme for rational division of abour, work management, and logistical support of works.

In India, as in many countries, railways originated as industrial gauge tracks for the transportation of ore, timber, stone, and other building materials. These were the fi rst industrial railways in India to deliver supplies to construction sites, in particular, Chintadripet in Madras (1835), Red Hill Railroad line (1837), Godavari Dam Construction Railway (1845), and others. Initially, the promoters of the construction of railways, based on the general social and economic situation in the country, did not count on the development of passenger traffi c, taking into account the virtually impoverished situation of the vast majority of the population. Efforts were focused on freight transportation. The colonialists proceeded from the need to develop railways as an important exploitation tool for exporting the country’s natural resources to the parent country and to the world market. Throughout almost the entire period of British colonial rule, passenger transportation was intended for a narrow stratum of colonizers and a few of the richest representatives of the country’s indigenous population. By the 1860s, there was a system of dividing passenger traffi c on the railways of India into four classes. Saloon coaches were used to serve the ruling elite. The difference in travel conditions in luxury saloon coaches and fi rst-class compartment carriages in comparison with third- and fourth-class carriages was huge. It refl ected the social class structure of Indian society. At the same time, railway passenger transportation did not affect the interests of the majority of the population at all, as with their level of wealth they could not afford to travel by rail at all, remaining outside the line of progress in transport of the 19th century.

The paper proposes a new approach to solving the problem of increasing the economic effi ciency of railway transportation of viscous petroleum fuels (fuel oils) at low air temperatures. The physical properties of fuel oils allow them to be obtained when poured into the tank of a tank wagon in a stratifi ed state, when their density in the upper part of the tank is signifi cantly less than in its lower part. This blocks the natural convection of hot fuel oil on the cold walls of the tank, and it cools only due to the molecular thermal conductivity which is very small. Upon cooling down, a relatively thin highly viscous layer forms on the inner walls of the tank of a tank wagon, which acts as a heat-insulating shell, and the bulk of it (more than 90 %) retains high temperature and fl uidity throughout the period of transportation. The thermal and hydrody namiccal culations were performed using modern computer technologies (the ANSYS 5.6 software package). The results obtained show that the need to heat up the fuel oil during unloading remains, but already requires signifi cantly less time and heat energy. The proposed energy-saving technologies for the delivery of viscous petroleum products are especially relevant in Russia with its cold continental climate, long-haul transportation, and the current structure of the country’s wagon fl eet. The value of the results obtained lies in the fact that the proposal can be implemented on tank wagons in circulation with minimal change to their design. The technology of operation of the drain equipment at unloading points will not change either.

The article is devoted to Memorial Day of the organizer and the fi rst rector of PGUPS Augustine Betancourt

The article covers the life and certain episodes of the activities of Augustin Betancourt (1758–1814), an outstanding engineer, scientist, architect, teacher, and statesman of Spain and Russia, in Russia. Arriving in Russia at the personal invitation of Emperor Alexander I, and being in the Russian service from 1808 to 1824, A. Betancourt left a notable mark in the history of engineering and construction, in the development of industry and transport of the Russian Empire, and formation of engineering education in the country.

Based on the sources, including those of the XIX century, the article provides information on the main projects implemented by him in Russia, offers characteristics of the relations between Augustin Betancourt and Emperor Alexander I, and other statesmen of that epoch, and reveals some personal and psychological peculiarities of behaviour of the engineer and scientist. An attempt is made to study the reasons for the tsar’s disfavour of Augustin Betancourt and his resignation from government posts. The article describes the conspicuous merits of A. Betancourt, his contribution to speeding up the industrial revolution in Russia, gives the main facts related to the special role of the scientists of Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University (PGUPS),the successor of the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers (IKIPS), organised by Betancourt, and the Betancourt’s Legacy International Scientifi c and Educational Project held since 2015 and the annual Betancourt International Engineering Forums dedicated to the development of higher engineering education in the world. This article is dedicated to the memory of Augustin Betancourt and is published in the year of the 200th anniversary of his passing on July 26 (14), 1824.

The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the most ambitious and controversial Soviet projects on the sociopolitical and historical trail of perception. The proposal to build a new railway north of the Trans-Siberian Railway was put forward at the beginning of the 20th century. The idea was approached in the 1920s and 1930s. Surveys were conducted, and construction began on one of the sites, which was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Moreover, during the war years, the upper structure of the track and a number of engineering structures were dismantled on the constructed site, which were used for the construction of the extremely important rockade railway in the Stalingrad area, which played a signifi cant role in supplying Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad. The interest in the construction of the BAM of the Soviet leadership in the 1960s and 1970s arose again in the context of an aggravation of the political situation — the complication of relations between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China. However, already during this period, the question was reasonably raised not only about the political, but also the economic strategic signifi cance of the project from the perspective of the country’s development prospects, the development of natural resources in this region, the development of transport links between the European, Siberian, and Far Eastern territories of the state. In the period after the collapse of the USSR, the BAM construction project, not without the infl uence of those who were under Western infl uence in the country’s leadership circles, was classifi ed as erroneous, extremely costly, economically and socially unjustifi ed. Today, in society, the state, under the infl uence of many factors of recent years, there is an understanding of the importance of completing and developing the BAM construction project. This project has played a big role in the lives of millions of people, many organizations and institutions. Among them is the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers — today the St. Petersburg State University of Railways of Emperor Alexander I, whose students, graduates, scientists and specialists have been involved in various forms in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline for half a century.

This article examines the current metrics and future prospects for the development of transportation and logistics routes connecting BRICS member countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran). It analyses railway transport indicators, the dynamics and structure of mutual trade, as well as the main destinations of Russian exports. A special focus is placed on infrastructure projects and trends in multimodal transportation. The study highlights the signifi cance of investment in infrastructure and the optimization of logistics processes, emphasizing the potential for enhanced economic cooperation among BRICS members.

Talking points for the speech by the Head of Moscow Railway V. F. Tanaev at the III Conference of the Association of Rectors of Transport Universities BRICS as part of the events of the BRICS Business Council Subgroup on Transport and Logistics. June 10, 20241.

The article deals with a new perspective on increasing logistics connectivity of BRICS countries through development of transport routes. The typology of routes was proposed for the fi rst time as a result of activities of the Subgroup for Transport and Logistics of the BRICS Business Council and summarized in the Guide of BRICS Transport Routes. Descriptions of main parameters of the routes as well as barriers to their development are presented in the article. The value of research lies in the preparation of recommendations to overcome barriers to development of these routes, which will create conditions for the growth of mutual trade and economic growth of BRICS countries.

The article is devoted to Responsibilities of a transport university for the development and dissemination of advanced competencies in the fi elds of transport and transport education in the context of the expanding BRICS space