Russia presented the design of Moscow – St. Petersburg high-speed train at the “Manezh Station: Moscow Transport 2030” exhibition on August 30, 2024, during an event attended by governmental and local officials.
The ceremony held at Manezh Central Exhibition Hall was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister, Vitaly Saveliev, the Deputy Transport Minister, Alexey Shilo, the Director General of Russian Railways (RZD), Oleg Belozerov, the Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, and the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport, Maksim Liksutov, the Director General of Sinara Group Viktor Lesh. The event was also attended by the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank, Alexander Vedyakhin, General Director of HSR Two Capitals Oleg Toni, General Director of GTLK Evgeny Ditrikh, and the General Director of Leader, Anatoly Gavrilenko, the company organising the financing for the project through non-state pension funds.
The so-called “White Gyrfalcon” (Bely Krechet) train is domestically produced and during the presentation, an agreement was signed with Ural Locomotives, part of Sinara Group, for the delivery of 41 eight-car high-speed trains for the high-speed rail line (HSR-1) that will cross Moscow, Tver, Veliky Novgorod and Saint Petersburg.
On February 15, 2024, an official visit took place at Ural Locomotives plant where design and construction processes were discussed, as well as the involvement of Russian industry to develop and innovate railway transport across the country.
Moscow – St. Petersburg high-speed train is manufactured by Sinara and designed to reach speeds of up to 400 km/h with the first carriages expected to depart for Saint Petersburg in 2028.
The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the development of high-speed rail in Russia is one of the priority areas of the national transport strategy which was approved in August 2023 by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Under the strategy, “five huge high-speed rail projects are to be implemented. They will cover and ensure the movement of approximately 80% of the country’s population. The Moscow – St. Petersburg HSR will give a serious boost to the Russian economy and will also contribute to increased connectivity of territories and increased mobility of passengers and goods,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The innovative White Gyrfalcon train will meet the highest safety and comfort standards. All key components are manufactured in Russia, with assembly and commissioning taking place at the Ural Locomotives plant in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
The new trains will be “nearly twice as fast as the Sapsan trains [which travel at a maximum speed of 250 km/h], taking only 2 hours and 15 minutes. The main design solutions for creating Russia’s first high-speed train HSR-1 were developed in Moscow. Some components for the high-speed trains will be produced by Moscow enterprises. The lifespan of the trains is 30 years, during which the manufacturer will be responsible under a life cycle contract,” Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport said.
In March, Russia has officially launched the construction of country’s first high-speed line that will provide connections to Ryazan, Kazan, Yekaterinburg and Adler with a possibility to be expanded to Minsk, in Belarus, a project that has been discussed and agreed by the presidents of Russia and Belarus.
The 679 km high-speed line will have 12 stations and is expected to cost RUB 2.3 trillion (USD 25.3 billion. The project would be needs totalling RUB 580 billion (USD 6.4 billion) financing from the National Welfare Fund and governmental subsidies totalling RUB 328 billion (USD 3.6 billion) until 2038. It is expected that VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank will also be involved in the financial part of the project. The line will be constructed by VSM Two Capitals, based on concession agreement for 40 years using private and public funds.
The Russian Railways has started to develop the design work for the project four years ago. The development of the first high-speed rail in Russia is part of a strategy to build a high-speed rail network and according to Russian Railways’ plans, this would have a total length of 7,000 km by 2035.
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