High speed rail projects (VSZHM in Russian) were one of the main topics of discussion among participants of the VIII International Rail Business Forum: 1520 Strategic Partnership held in Sochi.

The country’s President supported the initiative addressing the need to start work to build high speed rail lines as of this year, with the allocation of the corresponding financial resources – whether or not from the state budget – in order to finance the design work,”

said the RZD President Vladimir Yakunin. According to him, the very first high speed rail projects (VSZHM) have been defined as being the Moscow-Vladimir-Nijni Novgorod-Kazan route, with a plan to extend the line to Yekaterinburg, and also Moscow-Rostov-on-Don-Sochi.

Building high speed rail lines will not only help develop inter-regional links and increase population mobility, (100 million Russians live along the high speed rail routes), but will also give fresh impetus to the socio-economic development of the surrounding regions as the introduction of new technologies will mean more companies will be commissioned and the business market will develop.

(Source: Russian Railways RZD)