On Improving the Management Model of Russia's Railways

To analyze the structural reform of railway transport in Russia (a twenty-year-long, large-scale institutional project), this article synthesizes several descriptive and normative approaches. The quantitative indicators and qualitative expert assessments considered in the article show that the results of the reform are ambiguous. We conclude that Russia's railways (which were a relatively effective arm of the industrial economy) have not been transformed into a modern, high-tech, and high-speed transport communications network congruent with the future of the knowledge society, which is today identified with the digital economy. Several proposals are formulated for the further development of railway reform and its managerial mechanism.