Innovations as Basis for Strengthening the Market Position of Railways (example of the Russian cargo transportation market in the late 19^th – early 20^th centuries)

The formation of a large-scale railway network in Russia by the end of the 19th century contributed to a significant acceleration of the country’s socio-economic development, thanks notably to the increase in volumes, improved quality and efficiency of cargo transportation.

The objective of the study described in the article is to analyse the expansion of the scale of activity and strengthening of the position of Russian railways in the cargo transportation market in the late 19th – early 20th centuries and to identify the significance of the introduction of innovations in the industry using the methods of historical and statistical analysis, assessment of the innovativeness of rolling stock and technics and benchmarking.

The study revealed that the enhancement of the economic role of railways, including the growth of their share in the cargo transportation market in the period under review was determined by the synergy of the increase in the length of the railway network and its increasingly intensive use due to the innovation-focused development of the railway industry. Innovations covered all aspects of development of the country’s railways: construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure, design of rolling stock and its operations management. In particular, the high dynamism of innovative improvement of design characteristics of cargo locomotives and wagons was confirmed by the growth of the corresponding innovation coefficients.

Innovation-focused development of Russian railways in the period under review allowed them to take leading positions in the national cargo transportation market and, as it is evidenced by the performed cross-country comparisons, to achieve world leadership as for several key production and economic indicators. This historical experience is very interesting in modern conditions, when railways prioritise innovations to solve long-term problems of effective positioning in the transport and logistics services market.

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