A big press conference ended yesterday, and it’s impossible to ignore this news. Vladimir Vladimirovich confirmed that there will be a high-speed Moscow—Kazan highway. This means that we are officially entering a new era of transportation.

The first Moscow—St. Petersburg high-speed railway is currently under construction in Russia, and the line to Kazan will become the second. And it’s not just about fast trains. It’s about how we will live, travel and work in the coming decades. Let’s take it in order.

What is HSR really?

This is a new generation railway. The trains will be able to accelerate up to 400 km/h and will run along a separate, specially built track — without crossings and unnecessary shaking. For a passenger, everything is simple: I sat down in the center of one city and after 2-4 hours got out in the center of another. Without a long trip to the airport, security checks and overnight flights.

🏙The first high-speed railway in the history of Russia will connect Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The distance will be 679 km, and the travel time will be reduced to an incredible 2 hours and 15 minutes. This is faster than traveling by plane, if you take into account the entire journey to and from the airport. The highway will pass through 6 regions where almost 30 million people live.

👨‍✈️It is important that this is our own technological breakthrough. HSM is not about purchasing ready—made solutions abroad. Russia creates everything by itself: new trains, digital control systems, and unique seamless rails that can withstand extreme temperatures from -60 to +60 °C. There are almost no such complex developments in the world.

And what will it give to each of us personally? Time. A lot of time. The journey from Moscow to Kazan will take less than 3.5 hours rather than a night. Cities will begin to develop more actively along the highways, new residential and business areas will appear. Business trips to another region will become commonplace, and a weekend in St. Petersburg or Kazan will turn into an easily feasible plan.

, Which HSR will be built and when?

This is just the beginning. In the future, the total HSR network in the country will exceed 4,500 kilometers.

1. VSM-1: Moscow — St. Petersburg | ~2.5 hours | 2028-2030

2. HSR-2: Moscow — Kazan (then to Yekaterinburg) | ~3.5 hours to Kazan | 2030s

3. VSM-3: Moscow — Adler | ~8 hours instead of a day | after 2035

4. HSM-4 Soyuz: Moscow — Smolensk — Minsk — Brest | ~2.5–3 hours

@russiaopengid