Representatives from countries with a 1,520-mm railway
gauge participated at the fifth business forum called “1520-Strategic
Partnership”, held recently in Sochi in the Russian Federation.  They were drawn from governments, the private
sector, railway authorities, international transportation companies, and the
banking sector. They discussed important issues of cooperation, transportation
system, and tariff. This annual conference was first held in 2006.

Currently the broader gauge is limited to countries of
the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Baltic republics, Finland and
Mongolia. The total length of railway tracks in these places is around 150,000
km. Their difference from the rest of the world poses some unique problems of
logistics for these countries and the forum explores ways of surmounting these.