OREANDA-NEWS. “Russian Railways is constantly improving its transport services in South Russia and since the Company was founded has spent over 55 billion roubles on developing the infrastructure of the North Caucasus Railways, including over 18 billion roubles this year,” said Yakunin, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

“This year was marked by a memorable event, namely the selection of Sochi as venue for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Russian Railways plans to implement a series of major projects in the run-up to the Games,” said Yakunin.

According to Yakunin, one of the priority projects Russian Railways is undertaking is to run express passenger trains between Moscow and Adler, which requires modernising the infrastructure of existing railway lines to make them capable of handling speeds of between 160-200 kph, as well as the construction of connecting lines.

“As a result of these measures, the travel time between Moscow and Adler will be reduced to 15 hours,” said Yakunin, who also stressed that Russian Railways would do everything necessary to develop rail infrastructure not only in Sochi itself, but between Russia’s centre and the south, in order to ensure that visitors and athletes enjoy the highest levels of transport service.