Rail traffic between Helsinki and St Petersburg will be given an added boost by 2010. An international tender for faster passenger trains is at present under way.

Oy Karelian Trains Ltd, a joint-venture rolling-stock company owned by the Finnish rail company VR and the Russian RZD, opened a tender in December 2006. The company's aim is to acquire several high-speed trains with a top-speed of 220 kilometres an hour. The journey time between Helsinki and St Petersburg will be reduced from the present five hours to between three and three-and-a-half hours.

"We will be taking offers from rolling-stock manufacturers from the end of spring 2007. The precise time when the trains will come will be determined when the agreement for the delivery of the rolling-stock has been made. In practice, we estimate that the trains will be in operation at the end of the decade," says Ilkka Keränen, the company's President.

Different specifications

Several rolling-stock suppliers have entered the bidding. The biggest challenge in the project is considered to be that the future rolling-stock must meet both Finnish and Russian technical specifications.

"The most fundamental difference is the different electrification systems, because of which the rolling stock must be equipped with the dual system. Similar solutions are being used in various parts of Central Europe, so in itself it is not a question of a special solution," Keränen says.

Another challenge is the four-millimetre difference in the tracks, because Russian rails lean inwards. If the journey is to be speeded up, new tilting rolling-stock will be needed as will basic improvements to the track and transferring the border formalities to a moving train.

"If all the border and customs checks are done while the train is moving, the train won't need to stop at a border station to wait for the completion of checks."

Record number of passengers

Traffic between Finland and Russia has increased enormously in recent years. In 2005 267,000 journeys were made between Finland and Russia, a growth of six per cent compared with the previous year.

In 2006 the traffic went up by 25 per cent over 2005. More than 330,000 train journeys were made. About 50 per cent of the passengers are Russian, 30 per cent Finns and the rest are other nationalities.

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In 2010 the journey from Helsinki to St Petersburg will be two hours quicker than at present. (Photo: Soile Laaksonen, VR-Yhtymä Oy)