The Military & Strategic Analyst:

RUSSIAN RAILWAYS ‘NEAR COLLAPSE’

Russia is a country that is highly reliant on its rail systems. They are the means by which large quantities of anything are moved around the country.
The war has strained the railways to breaking point, with some 50% of railway stock being used for military purposes getting equipment to the front.
This hampers the available transport for domestic and industrial use. That in turn, forces the system to cut back on maintenance and reduce down times to maximise the availability of rolling stock.
That level of constant pressure eventually results in higher degrees of wear and tear which of course, happens more quickly, requires more maintenance and so it goes on.
Add to that the increased activity of Ukrainian agents in Russia and the increasing pressure from partisan attacks.
Things have become so bad that a remarkable recording of the deputy director of Russian Railways has come out. In it he berates the regional directors for failing to do anything about anything outside of their mediate areas, they weren’t operating in support of each other and the lack of communication and cooperation was unacceptable.
Now to be fair this is how Russia works. You do your job in your area and that’s that. You wouldn’t dare interfere in someone else’s so the whole concept of working with each other is simply not done.
However the deputy director is clearly minded to change things - so much so that he actually told the regional directors that if they carried on ignoring each other and didn’t help their neighbouring regions he would have them all ‘lined up and shot’.  So now we’re back to soviet era methods of motivation!
His read on the state of the rail system and its rolling stock was harsh. The partisan damage is also clearly an issue for them. As many as two or three major derailments have been happening each week. These are incredibly hard to manage, expensive to fix, require specialised equipment to clear and repair. Then there’s the loss of valuable rolling stock and repairing the lines.
Of course this is also more complex in Russia. The distances involved mean that it can take an age to get to a derailment in a remote area. That blocks entire rail lines in key areas - often for days at a time with knock-on consequences.
Appreciating that Russia is so dependent on rail infrastructure, hearing the level of panic in the senior most managers of the system, shows you quite how bad things have become. Far more than perhaps we have ever truly appreciated.
Just another part of the structure of Russian systems that is already creaking under the weight of lack of money, over use, and poor maintenance. Never mind the over centralised system and lack of initiative.
@Dianna_DiDi