UrBC, Moscow, July 25, 2011. The cost of introducing high speed train links in the Urals, in Siberia, and in the Far East (with speed at 160 to 200 km per hour) is estimated at 0.9 to 1.2 trillion RUR, if the complicated climate conditions and the area relief are to be taken into account, Russian Railways’ annual report for the year 2010 states, according to Interfax.

The railway company feels it would be expedient to introduce such links (at some indefinite point in the future) between Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, and Kemerovo, between Chelyabinsk and Novokuznetsk and Yekaterinburg, and between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

‘The annual passenger turnover might come to 8.8m passengers there,’ the report says.

Considering the high-speed railways, the total length of such railways might reach 7,800 km in these regions.