IN RUSSIA TRANSPORT WORKED NORMALLY LAST YEAR








MOSCOW, MARCH 6, 2001. From RIA Novosti Correspondent Alexander Fedorov.  In the past year Russia's transport worked normally, said Sergei Frank, Minister of Transport, at a meeting of the Ministry's board on Tuesday.


	The Minister said that in the year 2000 the volume of cargo carriages in the entire transport complex of the Russian Federation had increased by more than 8% over the 1999 figures.   The economic position of transport enterprises has improved,  the number of loss-making enterprises has halved, and average monthly wages of workers has almost doubled.


	The minister said that passenger carriages had also become more stable, although in somewhat smaller volumes. 


	According to Sergei Frank, among the various transport types, automobile transport has become the absolute leader in the volume of carriages which increased by 340 million tons, compared with 1999.  As far as water transport is concerned, the volume of carriages on internal water routes has also increased by more than 15%.


	The head of the Transport Ministry also noted that the freight turnover of marine ports had increased by over 11%, and that investments in the transport complex went up by 12% last year.