General information about railway transport. The importance of railway transport. Main indicators of the operation of railways Report on railway transport

For economic development In any country, the transport system plays an important role. In Russia, one of the main transport arteries is the railway, since it accounts for more than 40% of passenger turnover and 80% of the total freight turnover of the state.

The importance of railway transport in Russia is fundamental, because the country is characterized by long distances. From efficient work This system depends on the level of development of the state's economy. Every year, thanks to the well-coordinated work of the railway, the following is transported:

  • about 98% manganese and iron ore,
  • 92% ferrous metals,
  • 88% mineral and chemical fertilizers,
  • 87% coal and coke.

Since the first construction of the railway in Russia, which happened in 1830, this type of transport has required large investments, but despite this, the railway has a number of advantages:

  1. operates around the clock in all weather conditions;
  2. has a low cost of transportation (especially when transporting over long distances);
  3. connects all regions and districts of Russia;
  4. has the lowest environmental impact factor.

The role of railway transport

The role of railway transport in Russia is difficult to overestimate, because it is one of the largest in the world, thanks to which it provides 25% of the world's freight turnover and about 15% of the world's passenger turnover.

In Russia, railway transport is a branch of the economy, without which the uninterrupted operation of all economic sectors is not possible. In order to understand in more detail what role this transport system plays, it is necessary to consider its segments in more detail:

  • Transporting passengers and cargo. Production of products can only take place when they are delivered to the consumer. For the manufacturing and mining industries, as well as for agricultural enterprises, railway transport (railway transport) is one of the most efficient and cheapest types of delivery.
  • A developed transport system is the key to economic development.
  • Acts as a link between different economic systems.
  • As an independent industry, it offers its products with a number of features.

Namely, as a result of the implementation of measures aimed at increasing the efficiency of transportation, it was possible to improve the basic qualities of railway transport performance indicators. So for last years in the country:

  • the local speed of freight trains has increased,
  • the turnover of freight cars has decreased,
  • the average weight of freight trains has increased,
  • The average daily productivity of locomotives and freight cars increased.

All districts and regions of Russia are connected together by railways, thereby meeting the transportation needs of not only the population, but also industry, Agriculture. All modes of transport complement each other and form a single transport system.

Transportation of products has its own units of measurement:

  • tonne-kilometers (freight turnover)
  • tons (number of cargo)
  • passenger kilometers (passenger turnover)
  • passengers (number of passengers)

Key performance indicators of railways

  • Freight tension railways. This indicator calculates the amount of cargo transported over a certain period of time. Sometimes the reduced load intensity can be calculated through the reduced cargo turnover. Freight density on railways is characterized by an average amount.
  • Passenger turnover of railway transport – volume transport work for passenger transportation, calculated in passenger kilometers per year.
  • Freight turnover of railway transport is the volume of transport work for the transportation of goods, calculated in ton-kilometers per year.

Strategy for the development of railway transport until 2030

In 2008, the government of the country developed a strategy for the development of railway transport until 2030. It provides for the expansion of the railway network, bringing technical and technological railway transport to the world level, and increasing the competitiveness of the country's railway transport. Over the next 14 years, it is planned to build important strategic, socially significant and cargo-generating lines, the total length of which will be more than 15,800 km.

The state strategy provides for:

  • introduce more than 20,000 km of new railway lines,
  • organize transport support for 18 promising mineral deposits and industrial zones,
  • create lines that will ensure the movement of passenger trains at speeds of up to 350 km/h, with a length of 1528 km,
  • update the rolling stock (purchase of 23,000 locomotives, 900,000 freight cars and 30,000 passenger cars),
  • increase the density of the railway network by 23.8%, while completely eliminating transportation and capacity restrictions.

To achieve the set goals, more than 13 trillion have been allocated for the development of railway transport. rub., in addition, there are plans to actively use the mechanism of public-private partnership. 40% of investments will be allocated for the construction of new railway lines, 31% for the development of existing facilities, and 29% for the renewal of rolling stock.

If the above is put into practice, it will be possible to ensure socio-economic growth, the mobility of the population will increase, the flow of goods will be optimized, economic sovereignty will be strengthened, National security, the country's defense capability, total transport costs will decrease, and the competitiveness of the national economy will increase.

Rail transport today is the leading among universal types of passenger and cargo transportation in many large countries world, including in Russia. This is due, first of all, geographical features. In long-distance areas, traveling by rail is convenient, economical, and relatively safe.

Surface rail transport has roots in the distant past. It is known that in ancient times people did not have the need to move large cargo. Everything that was needed was carried on oneself. With the development of civilization, transport also improved. Rafts and then boats were used on the water. On land there are carts drawn by animals.

Appeared around the 16th century. At that time, wooden planks were used to deliver goods from mines and mines. But, as you know, wood is not a material of the highest strength. It was impossible to carry out such transportation over long distances and for a long time. The science of the past has found a way out. But the first above-ground rail track also had industrial significance. It was intended to transport coal from the mines to the villages of Wollaton and Strelley near Nottingham. And already in the 18th century, the first Russian cast-iron track with a length of 160 meters saw the light of day.

At first, only wide railway tracks were built in the world. Practical ones appeared only in the 19th century. They quickly gained recognition and distribution. Soon, narrow-gauge railways began to be used not only between raw material bases and industrial enterprises. They connected remote areas various countries with their economic centers.

In the twentieth century, the development of railway transport went through different stages. In the last years of Tsarist Russia, narrow-gauge railways were actively built. After the revolution and with the emergence of the USSR, there was a certain calm. The Stalin era gave a new impetus to Russia. They became the famous "camp lines". After the collapse of the Gulag system, narrow-gauge railways ceased to be actively built. In general, such railways were used on a large scale in Russia until the 1900s.

Today, in most countries of the world, railway transport is divided into industrial, urban (trams) and general use (passenger, intercity freight). Modern compositions bear little resemblance to their predecessors from the 19th century. The history of railway transport is a two-century journey from the first steam locomotive in 1803 through electric and diesel locomotives of the early twentieth century to and. Today there is equipment for civilian and military purposes.

The history of the development of railway transport includes the names of engineers and mechanics from different countries: (Scotland), (France), (England), (England), (Russia), (England), Rudolf Diesel (Germany), Russian engineers, inventors, many others.

Today, many countries are connected by a network of railways. You can get by train to almost any European state, the pearls of the Middle East. The Indochinese railway network connects Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, and Singapore. Trains run along the Northern, South America, Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Haiti, Philippine Islands, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Madagascar, Cuba, Fiji, Jamaica, Japan. And progress in the field of railway transport is confidently moving forward.

Since the wooden canvas quickly deteriorated, this prompted the inventors to turn to more durable materials, such as iron or cast iron. But the modernization did not end there; due to the frequent derailment of carts, unique edges (edges) were invented.

The idea of ​​​​creating rail transportation came to the minds of representatives of mankind back in ancient times. So, in Ancient Greece there was a so-called diolk, which was a stone path along which heavy ships were dragged across the Isthmus of Corinth. Then, deep gutters acted as guides, in which runners lubricated with animal fat were placed.

Initially, the railway track was very wide. This was due to the fact that a large distance between the wheels was considered safer, since a narrow gauge had long been considered much more susceptible to emergency situations involving derailments and overturning of wagons. Therefore, the first narrow-gauge railways began to appear only several decades after the appearance of their broad-gauge “brothers.”

Already by the beginning of the 20th century, a fairly impressive number of narrow gauge railways existed in the vastness of Russia. Basically, the target use of this type of railway track was quite narrow - narrow-gauge railways were widely used for transporting peat and wood. In the future, it is these railway lines that will become the basis for the formation of narrow-gauge railways in our state.

There were quite a lot of people in Great Britain who considered railway transport very promising, but besides them there were also ardent opponents of the construction of railways. And then, when the question arose about the construction of a new railway line connecting Manchester and Liverpool, a great many rumors and discussions arose about this.

On land close to the city of Darlington, there were a huge number of coal mines, from which coal was delivered to Stockton (a city on the Tees) and from there it reached the North Sea ports. This transportation was initially carried out in carts driven by horses, which took quite a lot of time and was very unproductive.

Over time, it became clear that the transportation of passengers and goods by rail are two incommensurably different things. So different that they require not only different types of cars in the train, but also completely different locomotives. If for passengers the priority is a smooth ride and high speed, then for cargo transportation priority is given to power and a high level of traction force.

In the thirties of the 19th century, vast lands on the territory of the then Perm province belonged to a breeder named Ivan Demidov. These were iron and copper smelters, as well as iron manufacturing plants and mines. In total, about forty thousand souls of serfs worked for the landowner Demidov, one of whom was Efim Cherepanov.

England became the birthplace of the first public railway line, and this is where the form of transport known as the Underground Railroad originated. There were several prerequisites for the construction of the subway. The main one is considered to be the fact that already in the first half of the 19th century in London, people learned and experienced the meaning of the concept of “street traffic jams”.

The Newcomen steam engine was once successfully used to pump water in mines and ship repair facilities, which lasted for more than 50 years. At the same time, this entire structure had impressive dimensions and required constant replenishment of coal reserves. At times, up to 50 horses had to be used to supply the steam engine with fuel. In general, everything indicated that this unit required improvement; the only question was who would come up with this idea first.

This unit, invented by the Frenchman Nicolas-José Cugnot, was a fairly large design. Three wheels were attached to the large platform, which became the first prototype of both a steam locomotive and a car, with the front one acting as a steering wheel. A steam boiler was also fixed in the area of ​​the front wheel, and next to it was a two-cylinder steam engine. There was also a seat for the driver, and the “body” of the cart was intended for transporting military cargo.

The history of modern steam locomotives is integrally connected with the first experiments in creating compact steam engines. In this matter, at the end of the 18th century, great success was achieved by the famous English engineer James Watt. Its mechanisms were used in many industries and for the purpose of pumping water from mines.

Many people mistakenly believe that it was George Stephenson who first invented and designed the modern steam locomotive. However, this is not so, the English engineer entered world history technicians as the first person who managed to prove the undeniable advantage of steam locomotive transport over horse traction.

The works of father and son Cherepanov became a bright page in the history not only of Russian technology, but also had great importance for the entire nascent steam locomotive industry. And it all started with the design of steam engines, the first of which had a power of only 4 horsepower. The elder Cherepanov, Efim, was greatly influenced by a trip to England, where he was able to see Stephenson’s steam brainchild with his own eyes.

The creators of the first mechanisms moving on rails were very worried that the smooth wheels of their units would begin to slip and lose traction with the railway track. And, despite the fact that by that time the Trevithick steam locomotive had already been designed, which successfully transported passengers and cargo, experiments in this direction continued.

The first internal combustion engine used to move a locomotive was designed by the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler. A demonstration of the new moving mechanism was made on September 27, 1887. Residents of Stuttgart and guests of the city could observe with their own eyes the movement of a motrice with a narrow-gauge transmission, which was driven by a two-cylinder internal combustion engine.

For a long time, locomotive manufacturers competed and collaborated to determine their optimal design and unit layout. In the 20s of the twentieth century, work was carried out in the young Soviet republic to create two vehicles at once for transporting goods and passengers. These were the diesel locomotives of Gakkel and Lomonosov.

After the end of World War II, many industrial giants gradually began to reorient themselves towards products of a peaceful nature. At this time, more profitable economic point In our view, diesel traction continues to push back steam locomotive traction on all fronts. In the United States of America, the leading position in the field of diesel locomotive construction is occupied by General Motors. Along with another technical “monster”, General Electric, this North American manufacturer is still one of the industry’s flagships today.

Before the main attention of the Russian diesel locomotive industry was focused on the implementation of the ideas of Yakov Gakkel and Yuri Lomonosov, many projects were considered in scientific circles. Some of the developments grew into prototypes, and some remained on paper; today history remembers both of them.

The idea of ​​using electrical energy to power machines that make mechanical work, appeared quite a long time ago. Thus, back in 1834, researcher Jacobi designed an electric motor with a rotating armature; subsequently, his developments had a great influence on the development of ideas of electric traction.

Even the carriages that Russian empire purchased abroad, I still had to redo it and adapt it to local conditions. Indeed, abroad, the cars were intended for travel over fairly short distances with frequent stops and for use in countries where the climate was significantly milder than in Russia.

Even during the construction of the very first public railway, laid between Manchester and Liverpool, some ill-wishers talked about the project manager, George Stephenson, that he started this whole construction only in order to find practical use steam locomotives manufactured at Stephenson's personal locomotive plant.

Purpose, scope, advantages, disadvantages of railway transmission

Railway transport (RT) is a type of land transport intended for the transportation of passengers and goods along rail lines. It represents a unified technological complex of linear enterprises and institutions for production, personnel and social purposes and is part of the country’s unified transport system.

Types of railway transport:

mainline public use (in Ukraine it is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport and Communications and is the main one in terms of transportation volumes),

intracity public rail – metro, tram (in Ukraine subordinate to the Ministry of Public Utilities),

industrial not for general use (railway transport of industrial enterprises and organizations of state and other forms of ownership),

military not for general use (subordinate to the Ministry of Defense).

Each of them has its own network of railways (broad and narrow gauge), its own infrastructure, its own rolling stock and its own management structures.

Rail transport is highly versatile. Different kinds rolling stock and freight cars make it possible to transport completely different cargo, including perishable and dangerous goods that require special conditions transportation. High throughput, high level safety, low cost of transportation (especially over long distances) and independence from weather conditions, seasons or time of day-- main advantages railway transportation before other modes of transport.

In modern market conditions, rail transportation is highly competitive compared to other modes of transport due to its efficiency, versatility and other advantages mentioned above. For these reasons, they still remain the most common in the field of passenger and cargo transportation.

Like every type of transport, the delivery of passengers and cargo by rail has its own flaws . First of all, not for everyone settlements and other objects have railway tracks. In this case, it is necessary to first organize the delivery of cargo by rail, then reload it onto a road or other type of transport and transport the cargo to its destination. This delivery scheme increases the total cost of transportation. In addition, when organizing railway transportation, it is irrational for short distances, and for long distances, precise planning of transport connections and routes on the railway is required. Due to different gauges on the borders with other countries (in Ukraine - on the western border), additional technical means and downtime of rolling stock are required when replacing their crew parts or during reloading. Railway speeds lower than the speeds of air transport, approximately the same or higher than the speeds of motor transport and pipeline transport, but significantly higher than the speeds of water modes of transport (river and sea).

Land transport.

Railway transport– a type of transport that transports goods along rail tracks in wagons (trains) using locomotive traction. railway track – a complex of structures and devices that form a road with a guide rail track for the movement of railway rolling stock. The main elements of a railway track: superstructure, subgrade, engineering structures (bridges, tunnels...).

Rail transport is an inland mode of transport. Serving transportation in the states of any region, it acquires the significance of an international mode of transport. Railways do not always form a single system due to different gauges. In the Russian Federation, the track corresponds to Western European, but wider than Eastern European.

Advantages railway transport: high throughput and carrying capacity; reliable operation due to independence from climatic conditions(exception - breakage of electrical wires during natural disasters); the possibility of constructing communication routes on any land and water territory in the presence of ferries; direct connection with industrial and agricultural enterprises of any sectors of the economy (individual sectors have their own access roads to access the main network); mass transportation combined with low cost and fairly high delivery speed; a shorter route compared to natural water transport routes.

Flaws railway transport: “linking” to the track; high initial cost of fixed assets (a carriage is more expensive than a car, but cheaper than an aircraft or sea vessel); high metal consumption, labor intensity, low labor productivity.

The technology of railway transport is complex. This is due to the connection to the railway track. The basis of the work technology is the theory of schedules (traffic schedule); plan for the formation of trains according to travel directions; an agreed plan for the formation of trains on the main line with the operating schedule of the access roads of enterprises connected to the main railway network.

Operating principles of railways:

1. another train cannot enter a busy stretch (to increase capacity, the stages are divided into sections);

2. movement is carried out only by trains (passenger, freight, mail, mixed), which are reorganized along the route;

3. loads travel between marshalling yards, on which trains are reorganized;

4. the transport process is managed through a dispatch center;


5. The locomotive crew is changed after 100 – 120 km (water intake is necessary after 600 – 800 km); modern traction allows you to change the crew after 200 - 300 km, and the locomotive - after 1000 km;

6. transportation occurs at different track widths;

7. shipment of goods - by carload, in small batches, by train or by block trains (typical for the transportation of bulk cargo).

The rolling stock of railway transport includes: locomotives (freight, shunting, electric trains for suburban transport and the metro) and cars (freight, passenger, special, specialized by type of cargo).

The emergence and development of railway transport dates back to the first half of the 19th century. and is associated with the rapid growth of the capitalist mode of production. The birthplace of this type of transport is Great Britain.

The first public railway in Russia, with a length of only 26 km, St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk, was put into operation in 1837 and had a purely demonstration value. Three years earlier, the factory railway began operating in Nizhny Tagil. Russia was 10–12 years late in organizing railway communication compared to developed countries of that time.

The full-scale beginning of the formation of the domestic railway network dates back to 1851. Then the two-track railway line St. Petersburg - Moscow was put into operation. Subsequently, the construction of highways began in radial directions from Moscow (to Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov). And also from grain regions to sea export ports of the Baltic and Black Seas. Railway construction in Russia has acquired a particularly large scale in late XIX– beginning of the 20th century. In the pre-revolutionary period, the main “backbone” of the country’s modern railway network was formed. By this time, along their entire length they were functioning Trans-Siberian Railway(Moscow - Vladivostok) and railways connecting Moscow with the Caucasus and Central Asia. The St. Petersburg – Warsaw – Berlin highway connected the Russian capital with the railway network Western Europe. Highways to Odessa and Murmansk gave St. Petersburg access to the Black and Barents Seas.

During the Soviet period, the main emphasis was not on the construction of new railways, but on the reconstruction and increase in capacity of the busiest existing highways. This approach was completely justified. The concentration of the main freight and passenger flows on relatively few highways made it possible to carry out a corresponding concentration of capital investments in their reconstruction and technical re-equipment. The result is a significant reduction in unit costs for transporting goods and passengers.

By the end of the 80s. railway lines Soviet Union were the busiest in the world. They accounted for about half of the world's rail freight turnover. Moreover, Russian roads were characterized by the most intense train traffic. On the territory of our country there is the busiest highway in the world - the Trans-Siberian Railway. The maximum cargo flow on it is confined to the Novosibirsk - Omsk section, where more than 130 million tons of cargo were transported in both directions in the pre-crisis year of 1990.

The high intensity of traffic on Russian railways has made it possible to carry out such expensive and capital-intensive types of reconstruction as the transition of railway transport to electric traction.

New railways were built mainly in the newly developed regions of Siberia, the Far East and the European North. To relieve the load on the Trans-Siberian Railway, its “back-ups” were built - the South Siberian Mainline (Abakan - Novokuznetsk - Barnaul - Pavlodar - Tselinograd - Magnitogorsk) and the Central Siberian Mainline (Kamen-on-Obi - Kokchetav - Kustanai - Chelyabinsk). A significant part of these roads are in Kazakhstan. Consequently, today they have interstate significance. Along with domestic Russian connections, they play a big role in the international territorial division of labor between Russia and Kazakhstan. Railways were also built to develop the fuel and energy resources of the European (Vorkuta - Konosha) and Western Siberian North (Tyumen - Surgut - Urengoy). The most significant road in the territory of Eastern Siberia and the Far East is also the northern “backup” of the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Baikal-Amur Mainline (Taishet - Ust-Kut - Severobaikalsk - Tynda - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan). The Small BAM - the BAM - Tynda - Berkakit highway was built. This route gave the South Yakutsk TPK access to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the future, it was planned to extend the Small BAM to Yakutsk and further through Susuman to Magadan in order to provide Russia’s third railway access to Pacific Ocean. There are projects to connect the “island” railway Dudinka – Norilsk – Talnakh with the main Russian railway network by extending the Tyumen – Surgut – Urengoy highway to Dudinka with a bridge over the Yenisei. However, the implementation of all these projects requires large capital investments.

To characterize the operation of railway transport on modern stage development, not quantitative, but qualitative indicators, in particular, electrification, are becoming increasingly important. In terms of the length of electrified railways, Russia ranks first in the world (75.3 thousand km), followed by Germany, France, Italy, India and China. In terms of the length of railways, Russia ranks 2nd - 124 thousand km. However, in terms of network density, our country is one of last places. The railway network in Siberia is especially rare, Far East and the European North. Although Russia still holds the lead in terms of total freight turnover of railway transport, both the railway network and vehicles are largely physically worn out and require immediate renewal.

This state of railway transport and railways is the result of a systematic reduction in capital investment in the industry, as well as the practical cessation of supplies of rolling stock and various equipment from the former Soviet republics and people's democracies. Russia, with its vast spaces and large volumes of transportation of bulk cargo over long distances, urgently needs well-developed railway transport (high-speed routes with high capacity and modern rolling stock).

The Government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution on the creation of JSC Russian Railways, the largest transport company that began economic activity since October 1, 2003. Today, the railway transport reform is recognized as one of the most successfully developing reforms in the economic sphere. As a result of the implementation of the program of structural reform of railway transport, a breakthrough was achieved in the field of passenger transportation - passenger turnover increased. Already in the first year of the company’s operation, the quality of cargo transportation was improved: the speed of cargo delivery increased by 6%, the share of cargo shipments delivered on time exceeded 90%.

The transportation of goods by railways in Russia has always been dominated by such bulk cargo as timber and timber, agricultural cargo and, to a large extent, grain and coal. Later - oil and oil products, raw materials, ferrous ores and metals, mineral construction materials. A much smaller share was made up of manufacturing products. And today this picture has changed little. Nevertheless, over the past 2–3 decades, a very positive trend has emerged - a gradual (extremely slow) increase in the share of manufacturing products in the total volume of cargo turnover and a reduction in the share of other types of cargo.

The geography of cargo transportation is dominated by cargo flows of fuel and raw materials from Siberia in a western direction (to the European part of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, as well as countries of Eastern and Western Europe). There is also a large flow of raw materials from the European North to central and southern Russia.

There is a project for an underwater tunnel connecting the Russian Federation with the United States, but so far it has no basis.

In passenger traffic, the Trans-Siberian Railway in its European part, the Moscow-St. Petersburg road, as well as other radial highways diverging from Moscow are especially busy.

Suburban passenger traffic is most developed in the vicinity of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities of Russia.

At seven largest cities Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Novosibirsk - has a metro. Construction of subways is also underway in Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa. In Volgograd there is a metrotram - an underground high-speed tram system. The metrotram, despite the tram rolling stock, is actually considered a metro. The total length of Russian metro lines is about 453.0 km, with 280 stations operating on them. Every year, metro systems carry over 4.2 billion passengers. This is almost twice the passenger transportation of the entire Russian railway network. Russia ranks third among countries in the world in terms of the number of cities with operating metro systems and fourth in terms of the total length of the network. The leading place among Russian metropolitans is occupied by Moscow.

In 1992, the construction of Russia's first high-speed railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg began. Thus, the first high-speed passenger rail line in Russia - VSZhM-1 - is a Moscow-St. Petersburg passenger line for the circulation of specialized high-speed trains.

On December 18, 2009, regular scheduled service of the Sapsan train began between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The original travel time between the two capitals was 3 hours 45 minutes. In the future, it was planned to reduce travel time. However, on the contrary, it has been increased and now varies from 3 hours 55 minutes to 4 hours 45 minutes.

The high-speed train "Sapsan" (Velaro RUS) is a joint project of Russian Railways and Siemens. The first train in Russia is made up of 10 cars. On the way, it reaches speeds of up to 250 km/h. At the same time, during testing it accelerated to 281 km/h. Sapsan carriages have a two-class layout - tourist and business class. A number of problems during train operation arise due to the fact that high-speed traffic is organized along railway tracks shared with conventional trains. In this regard, a decision was made to build Russia’s first specialized high-speed railway line Moscow – St. Petersburg. Trains will be able to travel along the new route at speeds of up to 400 km/h. Completion of construction is scheduled for 2017. Also, JSC Russian Railways plans to issue a through ticket for passengers of Sapsan (Moscow - St. Petersburg) and Allegro (St. Petersburg - Helsinki) - travel on both trains will be carried out on one ticket.

The second high-speed railway of Russia - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. Travel time along the route is 3 hours 55 minutes, with a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Along the route, the train makes two-minute stops in Vladimir, as well as in Dzerzhinsk. The first flight was carried out on July 30, 2010. The traffic intensity is two pairs per day - one pair goes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and back through the Kursky Station in Moscow. Since September 6, 2010, the second pair has been traveling from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod from the Kursk station and back. The total travel time is 7 hours 55 minutes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and 3 hours 55 minutes from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.

Currently, there are projects for the construction of new railway lines where Sapsan trains will be operated: 1) the Moscow - Kazan line; 2) line Moscow - Yaroslavl.