OREANDA-NEWS. January 30, 2015. From January-December 2014, high-speed Sapsan train services were used by about 3.23 million passengers. Sapsan trains operating between Moscow - St. Petersburg - Moscow carried nearly 2,565,000 passengers, while passenger numbers between Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Moscow reached almost 665,000.

By comparison, in 2013 high-speed Sapsan trains carried more than 3,105,000 passengers, with about 2,393,000 travelling between Moscow and St. Petersburg and more than 712,000 between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.

The increased number of passengers using the Sapsan trains led to the introduction of double trainsets from 1 August 2014. The Sapsan is designed to enable simultaneous control over double trainsets from the main driver's cab, thus increasing carrying capacity without increasing the number of train pairs. This allows the double trains to run according to the current timetable for single trainsets, without blocking the passage of other trains.

The project to launch Sapsan double trainsets is the result of extensive preparatory work on the infrastructure, hardware and the Sapsan electric trains by the technical staff.

On the introduction of the 2014/2015 winter timetable, from 14 December 2014, 13 pairs of high-speed electric Sapsan trains were laid on between St. Petersburg - Moscow, including two pairs of trains running as dual trainsets with a total of 1,028 seats and 4 pairs, which were specially laid on to handle the high demand. In addition, two pairs of Sapsan trains remain in service on the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod route.