Agreement on fast rail service to St. Petersburg expected during Putin visit

Transport will be high on the agenda during Russian President Vladimir Putin's working visit to Helsinki on Thursday. Putin is to hold talks on bilateral issues with President Tarja Halonen prior to his participation in Friday's EU-Russia summit.
      At the same time, it is expected that the CEOs of Finland's VR (Finnish Railways) and the Russian rail operator RZD will sign a cooperation agreement that is geared towards cutting the time taken to travel between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.
      In addition to rail matters, the two heads of state will discuss the vexed question of truck lines at the Finnish-Russian border and problems that have arisen over the import of Russian raw timber.
     
VR and its Russian counterpart RZD are to set up a joint equally-owned rolling stock enterprise. This company will acquire the high-speed tilting electric train equipment that the two partners will then lease back in the future.
      New locomotives and rolling stock are required in order to remove the need for engine changes at the border. The Russian and Finnish electrical systems are different, and new locomotives should be able to operate under both grid systems.
      At present the journey between the Finnish capital and St. Petersburg takes around five hours, but in a few years' time it is hoped that this can be reduced to three hours.
      Hitting such a target will nevertheless require a good deal of work on the track on both sides of the border - in order to allow the 220km/hour maximum speeds envisaged - and also the speeding up of Russian border formalities.
     
The Finnish President has already announced that she will be bringing up the question of the long lines of trucks that have been an almost constant source of friction and annoyance in south-eastern Finland of late.
      The two leaders will also discuss the recent hikes on customs duties payable on raw timber from Russia, which have caused problems in the procurement of wood raw materials for the Finnish forest products industry. Halonen will also raise human rights questions.
      President Putin is arriving at Helsinki-Vantaa International at 16:00, and will head for the Presidential Palace, where the two leaders will have talks, hold a joint press conference, and then adjourn for a working dinner.
      Accompanying Putin on the visit will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Economics and Trade German Gref and Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, together with representatives of the Russian border guard, customs, and local government leaders from the St. Petersburg region.
      On Friday, Putin will attend the EU-Russia summit to be chaired by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in his role as EU Presidency head of government. Halonen and Putin last met at the informal EU summit in Lahti in October.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Prime Minister Vanhanen to Poland to discuss dispute over Russia (17.11.2006)
  Departures of trucks from ports to be staggered to avoid backlog
  Poland blocks EU talks with Russia - setback for Helsinki summit (14.11.2006)

Links:
  EU Presidency
  President of Finland
  VR Finnish Railways
  Russian Railways