Russian Railways subsidiary Skorostnye Magistrali is preparing a draft study of the socio-economic significance of the proposed 660km Moscow–St Petersburg high-speed rail project in Russia.
The proposals will be submitted to the Russian Government for approval.
The cost of the project will be RUB1.2tn ($39bn) and recommendations are being prepared to assess the cost of the project's lifecycle, which will be complete in 2011.
Upon completion of the line, the journey time between the cities will be 2.5hr, and 42 pairs of trains at about 400km/h will run on the track, serving up to 14 million passengers a year.
Skorostnye said the launch of the rail line will help increase the development of multi-modal transport links throughout north-west Russia.
