"Technological requirements of the Russian side were approved and adopted by all the negotiating sides. It is the basis for the contract between Russian Railways and the Siemens group on producing 60 trains of the new generation," Russian Railways President Gennady Fadeyev said, commenting on his meeting with the Siemens representatives.
According to him, the sides have already agreed on the production phases and on the potential investors in the project. "The contract will be signed before June 2005," said Fadeyev.
He specified that the high-speed transport would be used on the Moscow-St. Petersburg route to begin with.
"Our task is to cover 670 km between Moscow and St. Petersburg within three hours. We confirm that the new train will be put into operation already in late 2007," said Fadeyev.
He also added that additional railways would have to be laid down first to increase the traffic capacity outside the two cities.
"The usual technology of train movement in this direction will remain intact. We will not make the existing traffic dependent on the speed," said Fadeyev.
According to earlier reports, Russian Railways and Siemens concluded an agreement on producing high-speed trains in December 2004.
According to the agreement, a joint venture is to be set up to produce high-speed trains of the new generation on Russian territory, using Siemens technologies."
Under the agreement, 60 trains are to be produced. The project is worth 1.7 billion euros. The new trains will have the speed of 250 km per hour.
