The Russian high-speed rail network will exceed 4.5 thousand km by 2050 – in scale, it will no longer be a separate Moscow – St. Petersburg line, but a unified system of five routes. Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev announced plans for its development. According to his estimates, about 350 high-speed trains will operate on all main lines.
The first Moscow – St. Petersburg line will form the basis of the future network. Its length will be about 700 km, and commissioning is planned for 2028. The main line will pass through six regions with a population of about 30 million people, and the projected passenger traffic between the two capitals will reach 23 million people per year by 2030.
The next four routes are planned to connect Moscow with Minsk, Yekaterinburg via Kazan, Adler, and Ryazan. After the formation of the entire network, the total passenger traffic, according to Savelyev's estimate, will be about 77 million people per year: 23 million will account for the Moscow – St. Petersburg line, and another 54 million for the other four routes.
The scale of the project extends far beyond a single transport route. The Ministry of Transport previously indicated that the approved high-speed rail development scheme provides for more than 4.5 thousand km of new main lines and should connect the country's major centers with the transport framework. The first line is designed for trains to travel at speeds of about 400 km/h, and the journey between Moscow and St. Petersburg should take about 2 hours and 15 minutes.