Not every bird will fly to St. Petersburg in 3.5 hours. The new high-speed train “Sapsan”, a bird of high flight and increased comfort, set off on its first voyage. For the first time in the history of Russian railways, the express reached a speed of up to 250 km/h, and the travel time took 3 hours 45 minutes.
According to the schedule, Sapsan will run between Moscow and St. Petersburg three times a day.
Source: LJ/periskop
1) This is what the tail of the train looks like from the dead end of track 4. For now it looks quite unusual for us, we still need to get used to it.
2) Hermetically sealed doors.
3) View of the Sapsan from the head of the train - I walked along the platform along the entire train. There were 2 people in the driver's cabin; were discussing something.
4) The train consists of 7 second class and 2 first class carriages, as well as one bistro car. Their layout is basically similar (rows of seats 2+2), only in first class there are leather seats, the distances are a little longer, hot meals are included in the ticket, sockets for each seat and wi-fi. However, the price differs by half.
5) The conductor looked at the ticket and passport and let us inside. By the way, there were reports in the press that the conductors on this train were renamed “stewards,” but on the internal broadcast during the journey (near the control compartment) I heard that they were still called conductors: “the conductor of car 3 should go there.” Hand on heart, I believe that there is no need to introduce unnecessary anglicism into railway terms, this is a rather stupid corporate undertaking. Is the word "conductor" a bad thing?
6) Transitions between cars are made like accordions without transition doors. The temperature inside the train is the same everywhere, despite the frost outside; transparent doors to the passenger compartments of the cars themselves open automatically, using a photo sensor - so you can walk through the entire train, from head to tail, without ever touching a single door.
7) We go into the passenger compartment of a 2nd class carriage. It is made in white and blue tones, with small light yellow and gray splashes.
8) You can undress in two ways: in the center of the carriage there is a wardrobe with hangers, clearly visible from almost all rows; and there are hangers near the windows where you can also hang a jacket. And at the top you see the stop valve. It is also in the vestibules. There are luggage racks on top of the rows of seats, as well as space at the very beginning of the passenger compartment for massive bags with wheels.
9) Ahead is a transition to another carriage, its interior and the transition “accordion” are a little visible. On the right side of the wall are spaces for oversized luggage; at the top is an LCD display, to the right is a translucent display with flight parameters (time, date, speed, temperature outside). On the left is the stop valve.
10) The seats are a little wider and the distance between the rows is a little greater than between the rows of "economy class" airplanes.
11) In the Austrian Rail Jet, for example, there is a large convenient “pocket” at the bottom where you can put newspapers, books, a small container of water and juice, or some flat thing. Here, alas, this is not the case - a pristine flat surface. The pocket is at the top, and it is small. It's much less convenient!
12) In a small pocket there are two things - a booklet for passengers with maps of Moscow/St. Petersburg/transport, all sorts of telephone numbers; and disposable headphones in packaging for radio and video channels.
13) The control panel for radio and video channels is located in the distance between the seats; you just need to insert the plug into the socket on “your” side.
14) General interior of the car in motion; Now the LCDs are working.
15) The folding table is very durable and solid; here you can easily place heavy one and a half liter “grenades” with liquids, and much more.
16) I’ll immediately note something pleasant - I really liked the smoothness of the ride. It starts off wonderfully, slows down smoothly, and doesn’t jerk.
17) Twin bio-toilets are located at the end of each car (here - on the left along the route, behind a transparent door).
18) Washbasin. It was not possible to remove the entire toilet, because... you need a very wide angle.
19) I was curious - what about sealing the composition with such an extreme combination? I went out into the vestibule, went to the door, and ran my palm over the joints. But it wasn’t drafty at all, and the temperature was almost the same as in the passenger compartment. So the sealing is pretty good.
20) After passing Chudovo, I decided to test the bistro car (No. 5) and drink the coffee there. The carriage is divided into three parts - first the control compartment, then the counters and the bar; then the seating area.
21) The coffee is average - well, somewhere around the level of the “Ideal Cup”.
22) Let’s take a look at the seating area of the bistro car, behind the bar counters.
23) Before Tver it began to get light, and behind it it became completely dawn. Here's the glow of the sunrise near Klin station.
24) Photo outside the window at a speed of 200 km/h. Everything merges into a white stripe.
25) In the Kryukovo area, the Sapsan slows down to 170 km/h, and in the bright dawn winter sun the camera already manages to focus.26)
26) And here is the Ostankino Needle. Here we also slowed down: we are going 95 km/h.
27) Flight arrival board.
28) Arrival of the Sapsan at the Leningradsky station. A real blunder, bright sun and frost!
29) Sapsan carriages.
30) “Sapsan” at the dead end. All that remains is to find information on hotels in Moscow.
