The announcement followed a meeting between Finland’s foreign trade minister Ville Skinnari and Russian Railways head Oleg Belozerov during an official visit to Russia’s capital last week.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, February 07, 2020 /Neptune100/ — The project would be an extension to the already-planned high speed connection between Moscow and St.Petersburg which is to be constructed by 2024. This would cut the current 650-kilometer journey from three hours and 40 minutes to two hours and 10 minutes.

A start date for construction has not been confirmed yet and the budget is unclear at the moment. It is expected though that the high-speed rail would reduce travel costs and increase capacity.

Both parties expressed hope that adding in another section that leads from St.Petersburg to the Finnish capital could provide a major boost for tourism in both cities.

It would provide quicker access into the Trans-Siberian railway network which hosts a lot of train tours that go all across the Russian heartland, into the far east of Russia and into China. 

Currently there is no direct train from Moscow to Finland. However, there are services departing from Okhotny Ryad and arriving at Helsinki via Moskva Oktiabrskaia, Ploshchad, Vosstaniya and Pietari. This journey takes approximately 8 and a half hours to complete.

Russia also has a secondary high speed railway planned between Moscow and Kazan which has been delayed multiple times. Currently it is not set to launch until 2027.