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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

Today we celebrate Railway Worker's Day. I offer my sincere greetings to all railway workers and veterans on their professional holiday and on the remarkable date we celebrate today: the 185^th anniversary of the Tsarskoselskaya Railway.

That project marked the start of large-scale railway construction in Russia, an industry of enormous strategic importance for our vast country, for the development of regions and the national economy, and for the quality of people's lives.

The engineers, workers and people of various professions who created the Russian railway complex are not only outstanding professionals, but also true heroes. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Baikal-Amur Mainline and other railways in the most difficult conditions is indeed a feat.

We are now facing major tasks aimed at ensuring accelerated development of the entire country's infrastructure, including the railway network expansion and renovation. All the industry specialists – engineers, builders, engine drivers, control room staff, drivers – are contributing to this great effort. I am sincerely grateful to you for your work and dedication.

I am convinced that our railway industry has a huge potential for quality growth. And despite all the difficulties, we will undoubtedly continue to move forward, setting new goals and achieving results, including increasing the capacity of railway lines and expanding the bottlenecks.

First of all, I am referring to the development of the Central Transport Hub and rail approaches to the ports of the Azov-Black Sea and Caspian basins, the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway and the expansion of the Eastern Operating Domain – BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway. All these projects are extremely important for our economy, for creating modern transport and logistics corridors, new tourist routes, and for supplying related industries.

And, of course, the most important tasks are to update the rolling stock, to ensure passenger safety and comfort, and to make transport more efficient and convenient by widely introducing electronic services, which, I emphasise, must be based on domestic technologies and solutions.

I am sure that your professional experience, responsibility and dedication will allow you to achieve success in implementing all of these plans.

Once again, congratulations on Railway Worker's Day. I wish good health and wellbeing to you and your families.