OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2010. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, said that an express service between Beijing and Moscow was realistic, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

Izvestiya: The other day in Yekaterinburg, you agreed with Siemens on the production and delivery of new electric trains. What is so new about them?

Vladimir Yakunin: In the first instance, the new electric trains will provide transportation for passengers and athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. All in all, we will take delivery of more than 1,500 coaches by 2026. And they’re environmental and energy-efficient trains.

Izvestiya: When will the first train go to Nizhny Novgorod?

Yakunin: The entire infrastructure is already in place. People in Nizhny Novgorod are waiting impatiently for the service to begin because Nizhny Novgorod is an alternative airport if for some reason planes have to be diverted from Moscow. But with the new trains, it’ll be possible to reach the capital in less than four hours, and in the future – less than three. The first train will run on 30 July 2010.

Izvestiya: Now the main item on the agenda is the modernisation of the economy. Soon the Presidential Commission on Modernisation will approve innovative projects from big business and help their implementation by providing funds. What did Russian Railways put forward?

Yakunin: As you know, one of the few test grounds of its type in the world is at Shcherbinka, near Moscow. But there are some things we can not test there, so we had the idea of setting up a special test centre where we could, for example, estimate the density of gravel to be used in high-speed railway lines, assess how various structures and designs behave and see how railway tracks perform at high or low temperatures and at speeds above 250 km per hour.

There are only two test centres of this type in the world, one in the U.S.A and one in Europe, so everyone does their tests there. But now we’ll have our own, and there is already great interest from our international partners. Moreover, this centre could also be used to test road surfaces. We estimate the cost at about 1.4 billion roubles, but the government will help.

Izvestiya: How do you see the role of railways in Russia’s development?

Yakunin: There are no real alternatives to rail as a carrier of bulk cargo and large numbers of passengers. After the Second World War, the West began investing intensively in roads, but now they’re sounding the alarm because no matter what trucks are used, they pollute the environment. In addition, petrol is becoming more expensive. So in Russia we’ve undertaken various measures to support rail. You probably do not know this, but, until recently in Germany, for example, there was a law prohibiting buses on railway routes for suburban traffic.

Every day, the Moscow transport hub transports 5,000,000 passengers. And what will happen if all these people switch to cars? You can hardly get around in Moscow by car as it is. We will create new cost-effective and efficient locomotives, which will gradually increase the speed of movement of goods and passengers. I’m sure that inter-regional high-speed services will be developed, especially in the Trans-Urals and Russia’s Far East, where as you know the transport links are not that great.

Izvestiya: The Chinese economic miracle has happened largely on the back of its new infrastructure ...

Yakunin: It’s a textbook example of how to boost an economy. And you know what they said to me three days ago? "Let’s think about a high-speed service between Beijing and Berlin and Beijing and Paris!" I really liked the idea.

Izvestiya: Can we talk about a specific project?

Yakunin: During negotiations on developing cooperation in this area, one Chinese businessman told me in earnest that maybe it won’t be ready in five or even ten years, but this train will eventually run from China to Europe via Russia. I also agree with that. And it can be a real project.

Nowadays we can carry freight on the Trans-Siberian to the border with the European Union in just seven days. And if you imagine that Russia and China together complete a direct railway line for high-speed trains, how much quicker would that be? Obviously the trip can’t be done in just one day, but the journey could certainly be completed in less than a week.