OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2008. According to Vice President of Russian Railways Mikhail Akulov, who gave a talk on the "High-Speed Project between St. Petersburg and Helsinki" at the VI International Congress on high-speed traffic in Amsterdam, the Company will begin an express passenger service between St. Petersburg and the Finnish capital in 2010.

According to a joint project between Finnish and Russian Railways, a 415-km stretch is to be prepared between St. Petersburg and Helsinki to take passenger traffic at a maximum speed of 220 kmph.

The finance for this "High-Speed Project" will come from investment on the part of Russian Railways and the Russian Investment Fund. The total cost of the project is 79.7 billion roubles or EUR 2.2 billion.

In 2007, Russian Railways invested 5 billion roubles or EUR136.6 million in the project.