OREANDA-NEWS. April 11, 2013. A presentation of the Moscow - Berlin - Paris train service operated by the Federal Passenger Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, took place at the Strasbourg Ville railway station in France. A stop at Strasbourg was recently included in the train's timetable.

The train's VIP carriages were open to the public for two hours at the presentation, which was attended by Mikhail Akulov, Vice-President of Russian Railways and Managing Director of the Federal Passenger Company, representatives from the Federal Passenger Company and SNCF Voyage and the Mayor of Strasbourg.

"We set ourselves the goal of making the Moscow - Berlin - Paris service a visiting card for Russia's railways in Europe," said Akulov during his address. "The increasing popularity of the service shows that we and our colleagues from the railway companies in France, Germany, Poland and Belarus are on the right track. Last year, more than 35,000 passengers travelled on the train."

Train No. 23/24 Moscow - Paris operated by the Federal Passenger Company made its first run on 12 December 2011.

It passes through five countries: Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France.

Previously the train passed through Vyazma, Smolensk, Krasnoe, Orsha, Minsk, Brest, Terespol, Warsaw, Poznan, Rzepin, Oderburk, Frankfurt (Oder), Berlin, Hanover, Fulda, Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim and Saarbrucken.

On 9 December 2012, the route after Manheim was changed to allow the train to stop in Strasburg.

The Moscow - Paris train is the second service to connect Russia and France after train No. 17/18 Moscow - Nice was launched in September 2010.

There was a direct through carriage on the service linking Paris from 2007, but the number of passengers wanting to go to Paris by train began to exceed its limited capacity, so the Moscow - Paris carriage was replaced by a new direct train.