Sapsan Review

I rode Russia’s Sapsan high-speed train from Moscow to Chudovo. While an enjoyable experience, it is surprisingly similar to Amtrak’s Acela and the legacy track infrastructure means that Sapsan runs mostly below its top speed. 

We arrived early at Leningradsky Station and waited in the Daily Bread chain. After a little travelers sickness, we moved to the platform. While there is security, large scanners low to the floor make it easy to put bags through. Metal detectors are used for people but only require emptying pockets onto a small table before proceeding. Therefore, the security check lacked a line and was quick and painless. We walked to coach three where a train stewardess checked our passports and found seats 25 & 26. Alas, they lacked a full window. The seats were spacious but did not recline (broken?) and were a little firm after an hour. While there is a café car with very limited seating, airplane style food carts also come by offering tea and other Russian essentials for purchase. Russian Railways (RZD) has a nice magazine with Sapsan timetables and some English translations for a few articles. We bought our tickets online for about $100 USD each (Moscow-Chudovo round-trip). After entering your car and seat number and last four digits of your passport number, the wifi was relatively fast and functional.

The Sapsan (peregrine falcon) began running between Moscow and St. Petersburg almost a decade ago. Running on a largely legacy double track railway, the train gets its speed primarily from priority dispatching rather than track upgrades. We only hit 245kmph for a short section and the rest of the journey hovered around 200 and in a few places, 220kmph. I could feel the train on some of the corners, another testament to legacy track. For the first 6 kilometers from Moscow, the train only tops 90-100kmph and then 145kmph for the next 40 kilometers. The train slowed to 95kmph through Tver and 160kmph through Vyshny Volochyok. Open Railway Map shows most of the speed limits on the line. The train took about a minute to hit 95kmph. From 0 to 200kmph, it took about 3.25 minutes in about 6.5km.

The train also saves time by stopping at a few stations for only one minute. Our train stopped at Bologoe and Chudovo (where we got off). The fastest train is a nonstop early morning run (3h30m) while the slowest makes five stops (4h4m). While there are 14 roundtrips between Moscow and St. Petersburg, one more train runs between Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow and St. Petersburg in 8h15m. Sapsan has replaced almost all-day trains except for one, the Nevsky Express, which runs nonstop in 4h5m, just a minute slower than Sapsan, using a 200kmph locomotive and up to 13 cars. That train is reminiscent of Amtrak old Metroliner service in its later years. The other passenger trains are overnight sleeper train and take twice as long, about 8 hours, including the famous Red Arrow. On my last visit to Veliky Novgorod, the overnight train from Moscow through off my jetlagged internal body clock, hence a day train this trip. For Veliky Novgorod service via Chudovo, one of the trains was recently retimed to meet a local train from Petrozavodsk and RZD has several connecting bus options on their website. However, we took a cab with my father in-law which took about 1h30m.

 

While there are some planned upgrades, the previous plan for a dedicated Moscow-St. Petersburg high speed line has been canceled in favor of a Moscow-Kazan route. Further upgrades such as a third track along its entire length would probably reduce travel time to 3 hours or less. Adding track capacity in Moscow would also allow the train to hit at least 125mph earlier. RZD reports nearly 100% occupancy and plans to add an 11^th car and additional trainsets to increase capacity. Some trainsets are already combined to increase capacity. With the Kazan project delayed and economically questionable, upgrading the Sapsan’s route is probably the best investment RZD could make.

The Sapsan is a neat service and I would recommend it for traveling between Moscow, St. Petersburg, and all points in between. Upgrading some of the slow sections and allowing Sapsan to take full advantage of capabilities would make the service even more attractive and profitable.