Russian Industry and Trade Ministry ready to refine support measures for HSR train production
YEKATERINBURG. July 8 (Interfax) - The Industry and Trade Ministry is ready to work on improving support measures for participants in the high-speed train development project, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Albert Karimov said during a plenary session of the Innoprom 2025 exhibition titled "Transport and Industry. Cooperation in the Interests of Citizens and Business."
"The project for [creating] a high-speed rail line [HSR] has been structured with the support of the Industrial Development Fund and the Cluster Investment Platform. These tools are already involved, and we are ready to continue refining and polishing them. In fact, the conditions are already attractive enough today to build a very complex, yet viable economic model for the project," he said.
High-speed trains will enter serial production in 2028, Karimov said. According to the contract, production of 18 such trains per year is planned thereafter.
By 2030, 43 trains should be produced for the HSR, and around 300 units by 2045, Deputy Transport Minister Vladimir Poteshkin said at the session.
"The total length of the high-speed rail network should exceed 4,500 km by 2050. At the same time, there is also a strong estimated demand for traction rolling stock across the national railway network. According to industry assessments, at least 700 locomotives per year will be needed over the next 10 years," Poteshkin said.
As reported, in March 2025 VEB.RF launched financing for the project to construct a plant for the serial production of high-speed trains, which is being built at the site of Ural Locomotives LLC (part of Sinara Transport Machines holding, STM). It provided an initial tranche of around 7 billion rubles.
The supervisory board previously approved the terms of VEB.RF's participation in financing the plant construction project for producing high-speed trains in the amount of up to 33.915 billion rubles for a term of up to 14.5 years. The loan is being provided on special terms under the Cluster Investment Platform mechanism.
In addition, loans from the Industrial Development Fund were issued to finance the advance purchase of equipment for the new plant.
Sinara Group has invested around 7 billion rubles of borrowed funds at the early stage of the high-speed train plant's construction in order to avoid delays in the project timeline, STM Board Chairman Alexander Misharin said.
In February 2025, a meeting on the Moscow-St. Petersburg High-Speed Rail Project was held at Ural Locomotives. At that time, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev said he had discussed potential support measures for high-speed train manufacturers with representatives of Ural Locomotives. No further details were disclosed.
The high-speed electric train production complex, with a total area of 60,000 square meters, is under construction in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Ural Locomotives estimates the cost of the work at 44 billion rubles. Completion of the five facilities of the complex is planned for 2026, and once operational, they will enable the simultaneous production of up to 300 cars for high-speed and ultra-high-speed electric trains per year.
The HSR line will pass through six regions of Russia, connecting Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions. In the future, additional high-speed rail lines are planned in for the routes Moscow-Yekaterinburg, Moscow-Adler and Moscow-Minsk.
The total cost of the HSR-1 project between Moscow and St. Petersburg is estimated at 2 trillion rubles. Commissioning is scheduled for 2030.
