Section, Railroad

the basic economic-accountability line enterprise of the rail transport system of the USSR. Each section handles freight shipment and passenger service on its part of the line. The railroad section is in charge of stations, locomotive and car yards, track maintenance, signaling and centralized traffic control. It is also responsible for block service, communication divisions, buildings and other structures, power supply districts, and other line subdivisions. As both an economic and an operational unit, the section, in its turn, is subordinate to the line administration.

In 1973, the USSR had about 136,000 km of railroad line in operation, consisting of 26 lines and 176 sections. Within each line the number and length of sections are determined by such factors as the volume of freight, the complexity of the transshipment process, and the composition of fixed capital. Thus, while the Azerbaijan, Transcaucasian, and Transbaikal lines have just three to five sections, the October line has 11, and the Moscow line has 15. The length of railroad sections also varies, ranging from 139 km for the Moscow Okrug section to 1,937 km for the Tselinograd section of the Kazakh line.