OREANDA-NEWS. With the introduction of the winter timetable on 30 October 2011, Russian Railways will be making changes to a number of the Company’s flagship high-speed Sapsan services. The main change will affect Sapsan services between Saint-Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod via Moscow. This service will be cancelled and replaced by the Sapsan St. Petersburg - Moscow and Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod, reported the press-centre of RZD.  

The cancellation of the high-speed train between Saint-Petersburg - Nizhny Novgorod (via Moscow) is due to the fact that Kursk Station in Moscow will shortly introduce a security system for screening passengers travelling on the Sapsan similar to the one already in use at the terminal at Leningrad Station in Moscow. Russian Railways will be building a pavilion on embarkation platform 11 at Kursk railway station to house the new system.

Carrying out passenger screening given the current timetable would require simultaneous processing of Sapsan trains from Nizhniy Novgorod and from St. Petersburg at the same time on embarkation platform 11, which is technically impossible to implement. Changing the arrival times of the Sapsan electric trains to receive consecutive trains on embarkation platform 11 at Moscow’s Kursk station would require adjusting the timetable for more than 60 suburban commuter trains, which Russian Railways can hardly undertake due to the huge social and economic importance of commuter traffic.

The Sapsan service accounts for about 8% of direct passenger numbers travelling between St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod by train. These passengers will in future be able to travel by the Sapsan from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod after changing trains in Moscow.

The new Sapsan timetable is currently being finalised and will give ample time for passengers travelling to Nizhny Novgorod to transfer from Kursk railway station to Leningrad Station to continue with their journey.

Russian Railways will publish the Sapsan winter timetable in due course.