The first Allegro is in Finland for final tests

allegro juna viimeisteltavana.jpg

 The first of four
Allegro high-speed trains that will serve the Helsinki-St Petersburg
line has arrived to Finland in
January for first tests in Finland.
Then, it will travel to Russia
for tests aimed at certifying the train for operation on the Russian rail
network. The other three trains will be delivered during the year 2010.

Alstom and Karelian
Trains Ltd concluded the contract to deliver four Pendolino trains in 2007. The
contract value was 120 M€. Oy Karelian Trains Ltd is a joint venture between
Finnish Railways (VR) and Russian Railways (RZD). Thanks to tilt technology, these
trains can travel at high speeds on existing conventional lines. They will link
Helsinki to St Petersburg in just three and a half hours,
later to be reduced to three hours (compared with the current five and a half
hours), with a maximum speed of 220 km/h.

Alstom’s Pendolino has been a genuine success story, with over 300 million
kilometres covered in commercial service in 20 years. The Pendolino, in
electric or diesel version, operates in 10 countries: Italy, Germany,
the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovenia,
the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain,
China and Finland. Russia will
join the list in 2010 with the inauguration of the high-speed St.
Petersburg-Helsinki line. With a market share of 95% in the world and in Europe, Alstom is the indisputable leader in the tilting
electric trains sector.

• Alstom Transport