Moscow–Saint Petersburg high-speed railway

Moscow–Saint Petersburg high-speed railway (Russian ВСМ Москва — Санкт-Петербург), also known as VSM-1 is a high-speed railway line under construction in Russia.

History
In 2020, Russian Railways reported construction was scheduled to begin in 2021. The journey time was planned to take approximately 2 hours 19 minutes, and the length of the line would be 679 km.

In November 2021, reports suggested it was likely for the project to be abandoned favouring possible upgrades to the existing Saint Petersburg-Moscow railway.

On August 2023, president Vladimir Putin announced his support for taking the project forward, as well as making progress towards Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Kazan.

On December 15, 2023, the Russian minister of transport, Vitaly Savelyev, said that they have formed the main parameters of implementation and developed a financial and organizational model.

Construction began on March 2024.

Route
The line was planned to be 679 km long, and will serve 16 stations (including 4 within Moscow).

The line will pass through Tver and Veliky Novgorod.

Operation
Trains will run in service consistently at 250 km/h, while the line is reported to be designed to handle speeds of 400 km/h.

The line is estimated to cut travel time between Moscow and St Petersburg to 2 hours 15 minutes, running at 15-20 minute headways, later increasing in frequency to 10-15 minutes by 2030.

Rolling stock
A previous venture to produce high speed trains with Siemens, a company which manufactured the Velaro RUS trains on the Sapsan service, was unsuccessful due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, following which Siemens exited the Russian market and the joint venture.

28 trains will be ordered in the first batch, expected to be assembled by Sinara Group with support from Transmashholding.

In April 2024, a 12 billion ruble ($119.6 million) contract was signed with Ural Locomotives (a subsidiary of Sinara Group) to produce 2 pre-series trains. The trains will be 8 cars long, with a design speed of 400 km/h, and a maximum operational speed of 360 km/h. There will be 4 classes of seating and pairs of trains will be able to work in multiple.