Discussions about the HSR have been going on for years, but in February, President Vladimir Putin gave the project impetus, saying that the Moscow-St. Petersburg HSR should be the starting stage for the development of high-speed rail traffic in Russia. Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt put this project on a par in importance for the state with the construction of the BAM, the Crimean Bridge and the Olympic facilities in Sochi.
“The task is very ambitious. And with the condition of import substitution and the creation of a completely new technological platform and new industrial sites, the challenge increases manifold,” Starovoit emphasized.
All classes of White Gyrfalcon carriages will have climate control, different types of chargers and comfortable seats. Photo: Sergey Mikheev
Changes to the law on railway transport and the Charter of railway transport will come into force in March 2025. For the first time, the concept of “high-speed rail transport” was introduced into legislation in order to extend existing standards to this area and ensure its regulation in the future, Alexander Starovoitov, a member of the presidium of the Transport Safety Association and ex-State Duma deputy, explained to RG.
The total cost of the Moscow-Petersburg high-speed rail project is now estimated at 2.35 trillion rubles. It is necessary to build not only high-speed trains, but also all the necessary railway infrastructure. “Sapsan” flying between the capitals can theoretically also reach speeds of up to 350 km/h, but on existing tracks it is limited to 250 km/h, explained Aleksey Leron, Advisor to the General Director of the South Caucasus Railway for strategic development and project activities.
He believes that for high-speed railways, railways are the fundamental basis, since without proper infrastructure it is impossible to realize the benefits of high-speed trains. At the same time, the design of trains determines the efficiency and comfort of using this infrastructure. So everything is connected.
At the “Transport of Russia” forum, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Alexander Vedyakhin said that one of the problems that engineers solved during the construction of the first high-speed lines was “to prevent the train from taking off.”
“The speed of an airplane at takeoff is 250-300 km/h, so a train traveling at a speed of 400 also wants to take off,” he noted.
In August, a mock-up of a high-speed rail car was demonstrated in Moscow. It is planned that the train, which has already been given the name “White Gyrfalcon”, will consist of eight cars with a capacity of 454 passengers. They will be produced at the Ural Locomotives plant, which currently produces Lastochok. About 300 domestic enterprises are involved in the development of the new train, 40 of them are located in the Sverdlovsk region.
“To realize the task of developing rolling stock for high-speed lines, it is necessary to develop more than 30 thousand units, parts, components. Of these, 1.2 thousand are critical, which have never been produced in the country,” said the president of the Sverdlovsk Regional Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Dmitry Pumpyansky. According to him, of all components, parts and assemblies, the share of imported ones will be 15-20%. This is mainly due to the short duration of the project.
“This is a challenge for engineers, technologists and for science in general. This should be the train of tomorrow,” says Evgeniy Dietrich, general director of the State Transport Leasing Company.
For high-speed trains, he said, a higher class of surface treatment, new components and assemblies in current transmission will be required. Leron added that the trains will require improved aerodynamics, new safety systems for road stability, effective braking systems, emergency passenger evacuation devices and even luggage racks.
High-speed trains will operate on completely new lines and, for the first time in the world, on space 1520. The Russian gauge will be maintained here too.
“The path should be as smooth as possible to eliminate jumps and vibrations at high speed,” Leron noted.
In particular, they will use seamless rails made of high-quality alloys with elastic fastenings. The track geometry is supposed to be smoother, with larger radii of curves than on conventional lines, in order to reduce the centrifugal force acting on the train and avoid overload for passengers. To minimize deformations, reinforced concrete sleepers must be stronger, and the accuracy of track laying on high-speed lines must be higher than on conventional highways.
According to Roman Pivovar, Deputy General Director of the Natproektstroy Group of Companies, the permissible subsidence of the railway track throughout its entire service life, that is, more than 50 years, is designed to be no more than 15 mm. The weight of one beam that will be laid to ensure such stability is 740 tons. They will be cast at 12 factories, which will be built along the railway track.
Leron also added that the high-speed railway should be completely separated from other modes of transport and pedestrians. Moreover, tunnels, bridges and overpasses need to be designed taking into account vibration and resonant waves so that they can withstand the load from high-speed trains. Safety barriers will need to be installed along the entire route to prevent animals and foreign objects from getting in the way. And place video surveillance systems and motion sensors to constantly monitor the paths.
Climatic conditions will also be taken into account. It is planned to heat turnouts, install snow screens, drainage systems, and introduce a system for monitoring temperature deformations of rails and sleepers. As Vedyakhin put it, if trains run once every 15 minutes, then there are no problems, but if once every hour, then snowfall can change the “precision of the flight.”
The emergence of high-speed lines in Russia will lead to significant changes in the management of the railway network, Leron emphasized. The introduction of automated systems will help eliminate the human factor – constant communication between trains and dispatch centers will be established through digital control systems. Starovoitov believes that security systems against terrorist threats will also be improved.
Source: rg.ru
