Kalpin Alexander - Professor, Department of Civil Law, Law Faculty, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Juridical Sciences
Address: National Research University — Higher School of Economics, 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

The article deals with the development of legal activity in modern Russia especially on the structural reform of the railway transport. The article outlines the current status of this transport as a natural monopoly and its services. Joint Stock Company "Russian Railways" comprises three functions, i.e. the carrier of goods and passengers, the owner of railway equipment and the owner of the entire infrastructure of Russian railways. The article describes the vector of the reform of the 2010s as it promotes to the economically sound transition of the railway transport as a natural monopoly to the competitive environment. The norms of the latest legislation separate the functions of the JSC and are to be performed by different subjects on the contractual basis. In this respect, the balance of the limits of responsibility and guilt of the carrier has been studied. The drawbacks of the legal regulation as to utilizing railway infrastructure are revealed. The author supposes that the regulation of this subject should be based on the principle of dual use and mixed contract. The article analyzes the causes and effects of the slow implementation of the reform. The author stresses that the legislation and by-laws have a vague description of public relations. In particular, it relates to the contractual nature of transport services. It causes a weak development of remunerative services within the branch. The article criticizes asyncronisity of adopting legal acts of different levels, contradictions between local acts and specific codes including the RF Civil Code. The author makes a conclusion on the necessity to harmonize legal regulation of rendering services by all the transport modes though adopting a single codified act on all the transport modes seems unnecessary according to the author.