The first Allegro high speed train of the Helsinki-St
Petersburg line is on its way to Finland

The first of four Allegro high speed trains
that will serve the Helsinki-St Petersburg line left the Alstom
Savigliano site for Vado Ligures harbour on the Ligurian
coast of Italy, where it has boarded a ship for Finland on 30th
December.

Just two years after the contract was signed
with Oy Karelian Trains Ltd*, the first train of its tilting
trains range Pendolino was completed by Alstom. It
will arrive in Helsinki in early January to start first tests in
Finland. Then, it will travel to Russia for tests aimed at
certifying the train for operation on the Russian rail network.
The other three trains will be delivered during the year
2010.

Thanks to tilt technology, these trains can
travel at high speeds on existing conventional lines. They will
link Helsinki to St Petersburg in just three and a half hours,
later to be reduced to three hours (compared with the current
five and a half hours), with a maximum speed of 220 km/h.

* Oy Karelian Trains Ltd is a joint venture
between Russian Railways (RZD) and Finnish Railways (VR).

• Visit the Alstom Finland website
• Visit the Alstom Transport website