Southeastern Railroad

a system formed by the railroad lines of Voronezh, Tambov, and Lipetsk oblasts and by sections of lines in Rostov, Riazan, and Belgorod oblasts, RSFSR. As of 1976, the length of the railroad was 3,520 km, or 2.6 percent of the length of the entire railroad network of the USSR. The railroad is administered from Voronezh. The Southeastern Railroad is one of the oldest in the USSR—the line connecting Kozlov (now Michurinsk) with Voronezh went into operation in 1868. The railroad was organized in its present form in 1962. In 1976 the section from (but not including) Duplianka to Filonovo was transferred to the Volga Railroad, and the section from (and including) Staryi Oskol to Valuiki was transferred to the Southern Railroad.

The railroad has five divisions: Michurinsk, Elets, Voronezh, Georgiu-Dezh, and Likhov. It is linked with the Moscow Railroad (Riazhsk, Pavelets, Volovo, Elets, and Kastornaia stations), the Volga Railroad (Tonovka, Oblovka, Dupliatka, Povorino, and Morozovskaia stations), the Southern Railroad (Valuiki and Staryi Oskol stations), the Donetsk Railroad (Krasnaia Mogila, Izvarino, and Ol’khovaia stations), and the Northern Caucasus Railroad (Zverevo and Tsimlianskaia stations).

The Southeastern Railroad connects the Donbas, the Northern Caucasus, and Transcaucasia with the Central Region and the northern European USSR and links the Volga region with the southern, western, and northwestern USSR. It serves enterprises of the ferrous metallurgy, chemical, coal, machine-building, and construction industries, as well as agricultural regions. At the Georgiu-Dezh the railroad connects with river shipping on the Don River.

In 1976 the freight turnover amounted to 119 billion ton-km, or 3.6 percent of the national total. The main types of outgoing freight were nonmetallic building materials (43 percent), coal (13 percent), metals (10 percent), and grain (6 percent). In terms of freight turnover, the principal commodities were oil (22 percent), building materials (14 percent), ferrous metals (10 percent), coal (8 percent), and timber (8 percent). The average freight-traffic density in 1976 was 33.7 million ton-km/km, which was 40 percent higher than the national average. Passenger traffic in 1976 was 9.1 billion passenger-km, or 2.9 percent of the national total.

During the period of Soviet power, the equipment of the Southeastern Railroad has been considerably improved. Double-track lines have been constructed, and large freight and sorting yards have been built. Automatic block signaling is in wide use, and centralized traffic control has been introduced in most areas. Electric locomotives handle 69 percent of passenger traffic and freight, and diesel locomotives 31 percent.

The railroad was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1966.