Allegro was the brand name of a now defunct high-speed train service, owned by

Karelian Trains Oy Karelian Trains Ltd was a joint venture agreed on 23 November 2006 between Russian Railways (RZhD) and VR Group (Finnish Railways) to facilitate the operation of international express passenger rail services between Helsinki, Finland, and Saint ...

as a joint venture between the Finnish

VR Group VR-Group Plc (, ), commonly known as VR, is a government-owned railway company in Finland. VR's most important function is the operation of Finland's passenger rail services with 250 long-distance and 800 commuter rail services every day. With ...

and the Russian railway company

Russian Railways Russian Railways or RZD () is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both managing infrastructure and operating freight and passenger train services and has a near-monopoly on long-distance train travel in Russia. ...

and operated by Class Sm6 trains, between

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, and

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

from 2010 to 2022. The train stopped at eight stations, of which six were in Finland and two in Russia. The trip from Helsinki to St. Petersburg took three and a half hours and the maximum speed of the train was 220 kilometres per hour. Because of the sanctions against Russia, the train services were stopped, until the VR Group announced on 14 December 2023 that it would acquire the entire rolling stock of Allegro to itself from Russian Railways after Russian Railways had neglected its duty towards Karelian Trains. The rolling stock of Allegro will be taken into use in domestic long-distance rail traffic in Finland during 2025.Allegro-junat käyttöön VR:n kotimaan kaukoliikenteeseen vuodesta 2025
''VR Group'' 14 December 2023. Accessed on 14 December 2023. During its normal service, Allegro was used for about half a million rail journeys per year. The rolling stock consists of four units of seven carriages each, which were manufactured by the

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

company in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Traffic

After the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

in February 2022 and the subsequent international sanctions against Russia, services on the Allegro trains were stopped for the time being. The last services so far were on 27 March 2022. According to the state of Finland, traffic on the Allegro trains no longer served a purpose. Allegro was the last direct rail connection between Russia and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The Allegro service operated between the

Helsinki Central railway station Helsinki Central Station (, ) (List of IATA-indexed railway stations, HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom ar ...

in Finland and the

Finland Station St Petersburg–Finlyandsky (), also known as Finland Station () , is a railway station in St. Petersburg, Russia, handling transport to westerly destinations including Helsinki and Vyborg. The station is most famous for having been the lo ...

in St. Petersburg in Russia. The trains stopped at

Pasila Pasila (; , ) is a part of Helsinki, Finland, that is both a central-northern Subdivisions of Helsinki, neighbourhood and district, bordering the areas of Alppila to the south, the Central Park (Keskuspuisto) to the west, and Vallila to the east ...

Tikkurila Tikkurila (; ) is a Districts of Vantaa, district and major region of the Municipalities of Finland, municipality of Vantaa, Finland. Located in the eastern half of the Greater Helsinki, Helsinki conurbation, some north of the capital's downtow ...

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

Kouvola Kouvola () is a city in Finland and the administrative capital of Kymenlaakso. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country. The population of Kouvola is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 17th m ...

, Vainikkala and

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

. The trains skipped Pasila railway station from 2016 to 2020, shortening the travel time by 9 minutes. In 2018 the travel time was 3 hours and 27 minutes.Paananen, Arja
Nahkapenkit, uudet värit, ravintolaan sohvaryhmiä: Allegro-junat mukavuusremonttiin – ensimmäinen valmistuu MM-kisaturisteille
''

Ilta-Sanomat is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid-size evening newspapers and the largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is '' Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019, ''Ilta-Sanomat'' is also the bi ...

'' 19 April 2018. Accessed on 27 March 2022. The final intent was to cut the travel time down to three hours.Helsinki-Saint-Petersburg Allegro, high speed Pendolino train, presented at Finland station in Saint-Petersburg
Alstom 8 October 2010. Accessed on 27 March 2022. Border inspections on the Allegro were performed while the train was on the move, as its passengers remained seated. Passengers also had the possibility for currency exchange on board the train.Stolp, Jula
Allegro matkamuistoissamme mukana jo kymmenen vuotta
Accessed on 27 March 2022. The Allegro had 342 seats and two seats for disabled people.

History

The service started on 12 December 2010. The aim was to reduce travel time between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg: before Allegro, the journey time was 5½ hours; it became 3 hours and 27 minutes over a journey of and there were plans to bring it down to 3 hours. The name

Allegro Allegro may refer to: Common meanings * Allegro (music), a tempo marking that indicates to playing quickly and brightly (from Italian meaning ''cheerful'') * Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement Artistic works * L'Allegro (1645), a poem b ...

is a musical term for a quick

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

, thereby suggesting "high speed". On board the inaugural service were Finnish president

Tarja Halonen Tarja Kaarina Halonen (, born 24 December 1943) is a Finns, Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first and to date only woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer wit ...

and Russian prime minister

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. The service was suspended between 18 March 2020 and 11 December 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Service resumed with restrictions on 12 December 2021. During the

2022 Russian financial crisis The economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late February 2022, in the days after Russia Address concerning the events in Ukraine, recognized International recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk Peop ...

, in the aftermath of

international sanctions International sanctions are political and economic decisions that are part of diplomatic efforts by countries, multilateral or regional organizations against states or organizations either to protect national security interests, or to protect i ...

placed on Russian companies following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the Allegro train became a primary means for people to leave Russia. As European airspace had been closed to Russian planes, and Russian airspace was closed to European planes, the train was the only passenger connection between Russia and the

. EU authorities asked VR to keep this train running so that those wishing to leave Russia could do so (though as part of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

restrictions, only Finnish and Russian citizens were allowed to use the train, and it ran only twice a day at half-capacity, of 327 passengers; but operators worked to lift those restrictions in order to allow the evacuation of other nationals). The service was suspended on 27 March 2022 due to the aforementioned sanctions. In December 2023, it was announced that VR Group had assumed the financial obligations of the joint stock company that used to run Allegro since it could no longer meet them itself. VR Group plans to reuse the rolling stock in domestic operations.

Route

Allegro connected the following stations: *

( Finlyandsky station) *

( Vyborg railway station) * Vainikkala *

( Kouvola railway station) *

( Lahti railway station) *

(

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

) The trains also stopped previously in

like every other passenger train from and to Helsinki, but this stop was discontinued between 27 March 2016 and 11 December 2021, when the stop in Pasila was revived. Vainikkala (on the Finnish side of the border) and Vyborg are special stations: on trains bound for Finland, passengers are not allowed to leave the train at Vyborg, as the train only stops to pick up passengers; and on trains bound for Russia, passengers are not allowed to leave the train at Vainikkala, for the same reason.

Border controls

On board the train, each passenger was visited by

Finnish Border Guard The Finnish Border Guard (FBG, ; ) is the agency responsible for enforcing the security of Finland's borders. Duties Main duties of the Finnish Border Guard: * Protecting the land borders and territorial waters of Finland from unauthorised e ...

and customs officers, as well as their Russian counterparts. Finnish border control took place while the train was travelling between Kouvola and Vainikkala, while Russian border control took place while the train was travelling between Vyborg and St Petersburg. If boarding/exiting at Vainikkala or Vyborg, the checks took place inside these stations.

Vehicles

The Allegro service was operated using Class Sm6

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

trainsets built by

, with a top speed of . VR has announced that they have seized full control of the trains and would begin using them in domestic services during 2025. The Sm6 appeared externally similar to VR's earlier Sm3 Pendolino series, but was based on the fourth generation 'Pendolino Nuovo' or ' New Pendolino' designs and its construction differed from the Sm3 in many ways.

On board services

* Food: there is a restaurant coach, which serves food during the whole journey, except during customs inspection. * Currency exchange: there is an agent walking constantly back and forth on the train offering currency exchange services. * Children's area: there is an area where small children can play. File:Sm6 Allegro bistro.JPG, Restaurant coach (before refurbishment) File:Sm6 Allegro leikkipaikka.JPG, Children's area (before refurbishment)

References

External links

*
Footage of a stop at Kerava station during a test run on 7 April 2010

Oy Karelian Trains Ltd

Скоростной поезд "Аллегро" (Russian)

VR (Official Finnish Railways) website
{{High speed trains in Russia Railway services introduced in 2010 A A A Named passenger trains of Finland