Russia’s state railway monopoly Russian Railways (RZhD) has put Moscow’s historic Rizhsky Station up for sale for 4 billion rubles ($52.5 million) on the online marketplace Avito, as it seeks to shore up its finances amid rising debt and falling profits.
The listing offers the station complex, which has not been used for long-distance passenger services for years, as a redevelopment opportunity.
“The station buildings have not been used for passenger transportation for a long time, which opens up possibilities for adapting them for new purposes,” the company says in the advertisement, which was first reported by the state-run TASS news agency.
The sale highlights mounting financial pressure on RZhD, one of Russia’s largest state-owned companies, as higher borrowing costs and weaker freight volumes squeeze its earnings.
The government has declined to provide additional financial support, prompting the railway operator to offload assets to reduce its debt burden and avoid sharp increases in freight tariffs.
The assets on offer include the main station building, constructed in 1901 with a total area of 3,900 square meters, a two-story non-residential building built in 1929 with an area of 3,700 square meters and an adjacent land plot of more than 13,500 square meters.
RZhD previously postponed an auction for the station from April 15 to April 29 without giving a reason. Applications to participate are expected to close on April 20.
The company’s debt rose from around 3 trillion rubles ($39.3 billion) in 2024 to 3.8 trillion rubles ($49.8 billion) by the end of 2025, while debt servicing costs climbed to 534.1 billion rubles ($7.0 billion).
Annual profit fell 22-fold to 2.3 billion rubles ($30.1 million), hit by higher expenses and a decline in freight volumes last year.
In addition to Rizhsky Station, RZhD has put up for sale the Moscow Towers skyscraper in the Moscow City business district with a starting price of 281 billion rubles ($3.7 billion), and plans to sell a stake in its freight subsidiary Federal Freight Company while retaining control.
Rizhsky Station has served only suburban trains since 2021. Many long-distance routes were redirected to Belorussky Station, while services to Latvia’s capital Riga were suspended in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Yandex Schedules data, 23 commuter trains arrive at Rizhsky Station daily, with intervals between some services stretching to two to three hours.
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
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