Sibelius (train)

The Sibelius was a train run daily by VR between Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia. The service began on 31 May 1992 in order to ease congestion on the night service train Repin  [fi; ru] and due to the fall of the Soviet Union, where traffic was increased on the border.

Sibelius

The Sibelius at Saint Petersburg.
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Russia – Finland
First service	May 31, 1992
Last service	December 13, 2010
Successor	Allegro
Former operator(s)	VR Group
Route
Termini	Helsinki Saint Petersburg
Stops	8
Train number(s)	035/036
Line(s) used	Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway
Technical
Track gauge	In Russia: 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge In Finland: 1,524 mm (5 ft)
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz AC (Finland) 3 kV DC (Russia)
Track owner(s)	VR Group Russian Railways

The maximum speed of the train was originally 140 km/h (87 mph), and it was later raised to 160 km/h (99 mph). Travel times between the two cities were originally over 6 hours, but were dropped to 5 hours and 12 minutes in 2002 and further to 5 hours and 6 minutes in 2006.^[1]

This rail service, along with Repin, was discontinued on 12 December 2010 when it was replaced by the new high speed service Allegro.^[1] Some of the carriages of the train were supposed to be used on regular traffic between Helsinki and Joensuu on IC 5/12 starting on 31 October 2011,^[2] but their introduction was delayed until 10 January 2012 due to pending homologation from the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (TraFi).^[3][4] For instance, the bogies of the carriages had to be changed.^[5]

• 
  Sibelius train carriages
• 
  inside the train
• 
  Russian Repin  [fi; ru] train carriages
• 
  Russian conductor of the "Repin" train. From Helsinki railway station in 2002
• 
  Tolstoi train  [fi; ru] which operates between Helsinki and Moscow

See also

• Sm6 Allegro