Russian Railways has just commissioned “Swift” express rail services in between Moscow and Berlin. The streamlined new train makes use of Spanish coaches equipped for rapid exchange of wheels designed for Russian-European gauge tracks.
According to the news, the “Swift” trains will use specially designed cars from Patentes Talgo S.L., which are equipped with a system for an automatic changeover of the width of mounted wheels. The head of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Maxim Sokolov had this to say about the launch at the ceremony:
“New modern rolling stock to improve passenger comfort and increase the speed of traffic on the route and improve safety along the route.”
The newly designed trains will considerably reduce sthe time that trains spend in Brest during the replacement of mounted wheels for the 1,520 mm ‘Russian’ track gauge with the ones for the 1,435 mm European track gauge. So, travel time in between the two capitals will be cut at least four and one-half hours.The first Swift train begins its journey from Moscow’s Kursky railway station on Saturday at 13:05 Moscow Standard Time according to news from TASS.
At first these trains will be operating twice a week, leaving Moscow on Saturday and Sundays and Berlin, on Sundays and Mondays. They will make stops in Smolensk, Orsha, Minsk, Brest, Terespol, Warsaw, Poznan, Rzepin, and Frankfurt an der Oder.
