OREANDA-NEWS. On July 04, 2007 the Board of Directors of Russian Railways has approved a contract with Siemens to service high-speed trains, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

Siemens will carry out the full range of work, from design and production to customs procedures, trials, certification, the commencement of commercial operations, technical servicing and train repairs.

The total value of the servicing and repair contract is expected to be EUR 354,160,000 over 30 years on eight trains, each of which is expected to cover 500,000 kilometres per annum.

The contract to sell high-speed electric trains worth EUR 276 million roubles was signed in May 2006and provides for 4 trains on the Moscow-St. Petersburg route and 4 for Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, with delivery of the first train due in December 2009. Each subsequent train will be delivered every six weeks from the date of the previous delivery.

An economy ticket from Moscow to St. Petersburg is expected to cost 2,000 roubles and business class 4,000-4,500 roubles.

An economy ticket from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod is expected to cost 1,000 roubles and business class 2,000 roubles.