The Federal Passenger Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, has begun a new international rail service between Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia in Russia, and Joensuu, the capital of North Karelia in Finland.

A ceremony to launch the train on the new service linking the two capitals was held in Petrozavodsk on 28 December 2012.

The train has six compartment carriages and one sleeper carriage.
A single ticket in a compartment carriage costs EUR 39 and EUR 60.8 in the sleeper carriage.

The train timetable is arranged so that passengers spend the night en route and arrive in Joensuu in the morning.

According to the Deputy Managing Director of the Federal Passenger Company Oleg Nikitin, tickets for the first run were sold in just one week.

“In late September 2012, the Federal Passenger Company and the Republic of Karelia signed a cooperation agreement regarding this service. The border and customs services have put in a lot of work to streamline the procedures to ensure that the train can cross the state border with ease,” said Oleg Nikitin.

The Federal Passenger Company and the Government of Karelia plan to develop further railway links with Finland. Work is now underway to organise regular passenger services between Petrozavodsk to Oulu, Imatra and Helsinki.

It is planned that during the first phase of implementing the project tourist trains will provide services at the request of tour operators. The next train between Petrozavodsk and Joensuu is scheduled to run by 8 March.

In the future, the Federal Passenger Company may begin regular passenger services 3 – 5 times a week if passenger demand is sufficient.

Among the prerequisites for the further development of international rail traffic with Finland is to improve the facilities at the border crossing point.

(Source: RZD)