Russian Railways, the national railway company in Russia, planned to invest $157 billion (5 trillion rubles) in the construction of high-speed railways, in preparation for the soccer World Cup in 2018, according to Bloomberg.
“Building high-speed links is a brand new trend for the for development of our economy,” said chief executive officer of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, in an interview in Sochi, where Winter Olympics will be hosted in 2014.
Russia’s ambitions to host these major sporting events have prompted the government to undertake major investments to expand and modernize the transport infrastructure. Russia does not currently have any high-speed rail links, while Japan introduced the first such service in the 60s, emphasizes the Russian state-owned company.
Russian Railways wants to introduce high-speed rail routes linking Moscow to St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kazan, with extensions to Yekaterinburg. The company tries to start working on the railway links so that it can connect in time four of the 11 stadiums for the World Cup 2018.
“If everything goes according to plan, we could be in time for the World Cup,” said Yakunin.
Russian Railways hopes to receive funding 16 billion rubles ($500 million) from the Russian government to begin work on the pilot project Moscow – Kazan. Construction is expected to begin in 2014-2015, according to Yakunin.
The 800 kilometer-long high-speed line Moscow – Kazan will cost 928 billion rubles (about $29 billion) and will reduce the travel time to three hours and a half, from the current travel time of eleven hours and a half, according to recent statements by Russian officials.
Yakunin estimated that 70% of the project should be funded by the government and the rest by the Russian Railways and private investors. The plans have attracted the interest of large foreign companies such as Siemens and Alstom, according to the Russian executive. Siemens plans to expand its Russian operations with investments worth over $1 billion and will start building wagons at a joint venture with a Russian company.
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