Background: large-scale plans for the development of Russia's transport infrastructure, including the railroad, require revision and improvement of the modern tariff system; the latter is unthinkable without improving the existing theoretical approaches to pricing in freight rail transport.
Aim: development of classification criteria for the evolution of theoretical approaches to pricing in freight rail transport in the XXearly XXI centuries on the basis of the most significant works on this topic; modelling the matching of the current stage of development of these theoretical approaches to modern scientific approaches of determining the economic category "price".
Methods: comparative, analysis, synthesis, system approach.
Results: we developed a chronological classification of theoretical approaches to pricing in freight rail transport in the XXearly XXI centuries. (with the identification of the correspondence of the stages of development of the theory to the periods of development of railway transport), a classification of the current stage of development of these approaches in the main directions of development, and the model of the matching of the elements of the classification of the current stage of development of these approaches to modern scientific approaches to determining the economic category "price".
Conclusion: the developed classifications and the matching model can be used in the future to improve the existing theoretical approaches to pricing in freight rail transport, to develop fundamentally new similar approaches and methods of their application in pricing in practice.