A year passed since the first passengers were delivered by "Sapsan" to St.Petersburg from Moscow. RZD claims that more than 1.86 million people have been transported by this high-speed train since then. Nowadays 6 pairs of "Sapsans" take the route Moscow - St. Petersburg, 1 pair - St. Petersburg - Nizhny Novgorod (via Moscow) and 1 pair - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod every day. Of course, the high-speed connection between the two largest cities in Russia is a big advantage. It takes about 4 hours to reach St. Petersburg from Moscow now (675 km, max speed 200 kph, av speed 169 kph for a non-stop train). Until 17.12.2009 the fastest train was "Nevsky Express" which ran 1 time a day. But of course there's always a fly in the ointment. The main problem is that there's no separate high-speed railway, so "Sapsans" share tracks with other trains and local services. So a lot of trains have to wait at the stations to let "Sapsans" pass, and a lot of trains were withdrawn (the special rapid train "Avrora" and the very cheap and only daytime train "Yunost" are among them). RZD promise that high-speed railway will have been built until 2033, so we are looking forward to further development of high-speed connections in Russia.
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Of course, the high-speed connection between the two largest cities in Russia is a big advantage. It takes about 4 hours to reach St. Petersburg from Moscow now (675 km, max speed 200 kph, av speed 169 kph for a non-stop train). Until 17.12.2009 the fastest train was "Nevsky Express" which ran 1 time a day.
But of course there's always a fly in the ointment. The main problem is that there's no separate high-speed railway, so "Sapsans" share tracks with other trains and local services. So a lot of trains have to wait at the stations to let "Sapsans" pass, and a lot of trains were withdrawn (the special rapid train "Avrora" and the very cheap and only daytime train "Yunost" are among them). RZD promise that high-speed railway will have been built until 2033, so we are looking forward to further development of high-speed connections in Russia.