In recent decades, every effort has been made in the Western information space to belittle the importance of the USSR’s contribution to the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition over Germany and its satellites. At the same time, the role of the United States of America is being extolled — especially the assistance it provided to the allies, in particular the USSR, under the Lend–Lease programme. This article is based on published archival materials and is intended to show the state of railway transport in the Soviet Union in the pre-war years and in different periods of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the heroic efforts of Soviet railway workers to carry out military transportation for various purposes. The paper provides an objective view on the scale and importance of American supplies of equipment and materials for the needs of railway transport of the Soviet Union during the war years. It deals with the specifics of USSR lend-lease orders for railway equipment, indicating the key quantities and the priority of railway products over supplies of other goods. The paper explores opinions on the subject in question presented by both Soviet experts from among top executives in the railway industry, historians, and American researchers.

On December 2, 2024, on the 215th anniversary of the foundation of Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University (PGUPS), the Sixth Betancourt International Engineering Forum was held. For many years, it has been held on this date which is a big day for the country’s first transport university. Traditionally, participants of these scientific and engineering meetings discuss current issues in the development of transport and engineering education. In 2024, the forum organizers — the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Railway Transport, Russian Railways, and Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University — proposed the topic “High-speed railway line St. Petersburg–Moscow: Challenges, solutions, personnel”.

The use of hydrogen fuel in railway transport helps improve the environmental situation (this is particularly true about the so-called “green” hydrogen obtained by electrolysis using unconventional and renewable energy sources), reduce noise levels in comparison to diesel locomotives and diesel trains, and provide increased security and efficiency compared to locomotives with internal combustion engines. However, hydrogen fuel is expensive, resulting in the overall high cost of operating this type of transport (approximately 60% higher than rolling stock with diesel and electric transmission). What is also worth noting is the complex design, high cost of hydrogen tanks, and potential risk of explosion and fi re in case of accidents and derailments. Storing hydrogen in the form of metal hydride compounds involves a number of technological difficulties. Hydrogen-powered vehicles have a shorter cruising range compared to diesel trains and a considerably shorter operating time for a shunting locomotive. The high cost of fuel cells necessitates the production of hybrid rolling stock with batteries.
When the hybrid scheme uses compressed hydrogen, a locomotive can only be used as a shunter. Due to a low weight of the power unit, it may be necessary to install ballast even where batteries are available, in order to provide the traction force for wheel-rail adhesion.

The study analyses the transport and energy components of Africa’s logistics infrastructure. The purpose of the analysis is to create an integrated transport system with all modes of transport operating in a coordinated and concerted manner. The transport system should provide stability of transport, freight and passenger flows on the basis of logistics. The analysis method used in the study analysed data mainly collected from secondary sources and involved methods of statistics. The findings of the analysis have shown that Africa has a low level of infrastructure development, especially in the power engineering and transport sectors. The performance of the currently operational facilities is very poor compared to the world’s statistics. The findings also show that the energy infrastructure in Africa is very limited and the majority of its elements do not operate, ultimately resulting in frequent outages which affect the production and social sectors. The authors conclude that the economic development of African countries is in many respects dependent on trade. Without a proper unified and integrated transport network running across Africa, it will be impossible to integrate African economies into a single national economic mechanism. A unified and interconnected transport and energy network will help Africa to create a strong logistics system.

T he Russian Federation has a promising transport potential, which requires the development of the transport infrastructure of Siberia and the Far East. The implementation of certain eastern transport projects has a long history. For two centuries, both Russian and foreign politicians, transport specialists, and enthusiasts have put forward infrastructural programmes for the development of the East of the country and the expansion of transport accessibility of its distant borders. The improvement of the infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), the expansion of the railway and highway networks, the construction of a number of complex engineering structures, such as bridges and tunnels, the expansion of combined water and land transportation, and the increase in the number of border crossings enhance the international importance of Russian transport. Combining all promising transport projects into a single comprehensive programme creates conditions for expanding transport links between the world’s leading economic centres. The successful development of the East–West transport corridor in modern conditions opens up new opportunities for Russia, which should be paid closer attention to.
Russian and foreign literature provides a historical retrospective of individual promising infrastructure projects for the development of the Far Eastern and Siberian sections of the East–West transport corridor. No single, comprehensive study has been undertaken to date.