Russia and Germany have agreed to connect Germanys capital Berlin with St. Petersburg, which is often branded Russias northern capital.
Read more
The news, first published in the Russian media, was confirmed by Germanys Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The train will go from Germany to the Russian exclave city of Kaliningrad and then onwards to St. Petersburg, the ministry has confirmed in a letter to RT.
There is currently no direct railway between St. Petersburg and Berlin. Passengers have to make a two-hour connection in Moscow and spend 32 hours on road. It is also difficult to get from Berlin to Kaliningrad by train – you have to change trains twice. The new route will also slash the travel time between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad by almost a half.
Russian Railways has also confirmed the new route, Izvestia daily reports. The countries have given no information about the date of the launch of the railroad, but it is likely to be a significant boost Russian-German tourism.
“At the moment, the technical development of the project is being carried out. The matter is, for example, that some stations on the route can accept trains with 50 cars, and some cant. It is too early to speak about the approximate time frames of the launch,” Russian Railways said.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
[contf]
[contfnew]
RT
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
