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High speed Allegro Helsinki - St. Petersburg passenger count down by a quarter

The high-speed train Allegro between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, Russia had a 25 percent decline in passenger numbers so far this year. Finland’s state-owned VR Group which runs the trains has started to sell tickets at reduced prices.

Allegro-juna Helsingin rautatieasemalla.
Image: YLE

Allegro's declining passenger number trend appears to be continuing. During the spring this year ticket sales have gone down by about 25 percent, compared with the same time last year.

Allegro’s high speed rail service started at the end of 2010 and saw its biggest passenger numbers in 2013, when VR sold about half a million tickets. Last year Allegro had a total of about 400,000 passengers.

After the Allegro trains were introduced, the travel time between Helsinki and St. Petersburg was cut to about three and a half hours, or about two hours less than the old trains.

Cruise passenger numbers between Helsinki and St. Petersburg are also down by about a third compared with last year.