Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin presented a model of the latest domestic train “White Gyrfalcon” for the high-speed rail (HSR) line Moscow — Saint Petersburg, a project initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the “Manezh Station: Moscow Transport 2030” exhibition. The train will reach speeds of up to 400 km/h (249 mph).

The White Gyrfalcon will depart for Saint Petersburg on the HSR by 2028—a distance of 635 km (395 miles). The old Moscow - Saint Petersburg Railway is the second oldest railway in Russia after a short line connecting Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo.

During the presentation at Manezh, an agreement was signed for the delivery of 41 Russian trains for the high-speed rail line HSR-1 “Moscow – Tver – Veliky Novgorod – Saint Petersburg.”.

All key components are manufactured in Russia, with assembly and commissioning taking place at the Ural Locomotives plant in Sverdlovsk Oblast. Each train consists of 8 carriages with several service classes. The train ride to Saint Petersburg will be nearly twice as fast as the Sapsan, taking only 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The first carriages will depart for Saint Petersburg in 2028. Travel time between Moscow and Tver will be 39 minutes, between Saint Petersburg and Veliky Novgorod — 29 minutes. From Zelenograd to central Moscow, the journey will take just 14 minutes.

The lifespan of the trains is 30 years, during which the manufacturer will be responsible under a life cycle contract, said Maksim Liksutov.