Аннотация:In 2014 JSC RZD adopted the document entitled RZD Holding’s Strategy Up To 2030, which defined the mission and strategic goals for the Russian Railways for the period up to 2030 and the major lines and instruments to reach the goals. The pivotal growth of JSC RZD efficiency envisaged in the Strategy (where the main strategic goals include: improvement of business magnitude, core business efficiency and quality of products, services, and processes) suggests implementation of an innovative “breakthrough” as long as traditional organizational methods aimed to improve efficiency are substantially limited under the terms of existing public control system. For the present, the Russian Railways have some innovative growth areas, which actually are technical facilities designed up to the world standards. Scientists from JSC VNIIZhT have completed a wide range of technology developments which are further upgraded to support the strategic development of RZD Holding. In 2015 and in the mid-term future, the key directions of researches aimed to support JSC RZD efficiency growth would be as follows: feasibility evaluation of development directions for bundled transport/logistics services and of innovative technical facilities needed for their efficient implementation, including robotics and overall automation systems; scientific support for strategic planning use in the railway sector; design of innovative rolling stock types able to improve the carrying capacity of railway lines and development of respective manufacturing technologies employing the latest system of automatic train operation, automatic braking and integrated safety systems able to decrease the risks of traffic accidents and emergencies; development of innovative materials, machines, instruments and technologies for infrastructure operation and repairs aimed to decrease the life cycle costs and to improve the mechanized tools reliability; improvements to environmental friendliness and energy consumption efficiency in the railway sector and development of scientifically grounded recommendations on how to improve traffic capacity and how to control operations over railway lines with considerations to the planned railway lines differentiation by class. Scientific support to the Trans-Eurasian Development Belt project is a high-priority task.