Allegro

Allegro was the brand name of a now defunct high-speed train service, operated by Alstom VR Class Sm6 trains, between Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia. History The service started on 12 December 2010. The aim was to reduce travel time between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg: before Allegro, the journey time was 5½ hours; it became 3 hours and 27 minutes over a journey of and there were plans to bring it down to 3 hours. The name Allegro is a musical term for a quick tempo, thereby suggesting "high speed". On board the inaugural service were Finnish president Tarja Halonen and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. The service was suspended between 18 March 2020 and 11 December 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Service resumed with restrictions on 12 December 2021. During the 2022 Russian financial crisis, in the aftermath of international sanctions placed on Russian companies following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Allegro train became a primary means for people to leave Russia. As European airspace had been closed to Russian planes, and Russian airspace is closed to European planes, the train is the only passenger connection between Russia and the European Union. EU authorities have asked VR to keep this train running so that those wishing to leave Russia can do so (though as part of COVID-19 restrictions, only Finnish and Russian citizens had been allowed to use the train, and it runs only twice a day at half-capacity, of 327 passengers; but operators had been working to lift those restrictions in order to allow the evacuation of other nationals). The train has been suspended since 27 March 2022 due to the aforementioned sanctions.