Russian Railways to Help France Build Night Train

By The Moscow Times

Feb. 3, 2015

Russian Railways and SNCF have agreed to work together to develop a night train for travel within France. Igor Tabakov / MT

The national rail companies of Russia and France have agreed to work together to develop a night train for travel within France, Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin said in an interview published Tuesday.

Yakunin did not specify how much would be invested in the project or when it would be completed, but said that Russian Railways had recently reached an agreement on the project with Guillaume Pepy, the president of state-owned French railway company SNCF.

“We will provide modern night trains on the lines chosen by SNCF. This should begin by the end of this year,” Yakunin told French newspaper Les Echos.

Night trains are for the most part vanishing in Europe even as they remain a major source of transportation across Russia's vast distances, Yakunin added.

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