High-speed trains departing from Russia to Finland are full
Until this weekend, daily express trains from St. Petersburg to Helsinki typically carried much less than each of several hundred passengers. But on Saturday, a wave of passengers trying to leave Russia began packing trains to Finland.
“We have had full trains from St. Petersburg from Sunday onwards,” Topi Simola, director of rail passenger transport, said in a telephone interview.
“They’re finally leaving,” he said. “You can see it in the luggage they carry.”
According to a Finnish newspaper, Tatjana Erofgeva, who lives in Budapest, was visiting relatives in Russia at the start of the attack. Hufvudstadsbladet. He left Helsinki on a morning train on Monday.
“It was the only way out of Russia,” Erofgeva said. notes that many countries had closed their airspace to Russian flights last Thursday after the occupation of Ukraine.
The Allegro line takes 3.5 hours from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. The service is a joint venture VR Group Finland and Russian Railways, both state-owned companies.
The line was suspended during the pandemic, but in December it resumed operations at half capacity. There are two trains a day from St. Petersburg, and tickets are only available to Finnish and Russian citizens.
“This route is an important road out of Russia,” Finnish railway authority Simola said, and his organization negotiated with the Russian railways to increase the service, with the goal of eventually returning to the four-trip schedule of the pandemic.
A Russian who got off a train in Helsinki on Tuesday night told a Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that many people at home, including friends, had difficulty leaving the country because so many Russians do not have passports.
“Many are afraid because of the financial situation,” said a man who was only identified by his first name Anton.
“Many Russians do not support the war and are trying to protest,” he told the newspaper. “But unfortunately the cops are pretty tough now.”