Allegro continues to grow in popularity: now over one million passengers

Allegro welcomed its one millionth passenger on Friday 20 September. Eight fast Allegro services operate between Helsinki and St. Petersburg daily. In 2011 VR set a target of 500 000 trips for Allegro per year by 2015. Now 90 percent of this target has been achieved.

– Passenger volumes have seen huge growth in July and August. Allegro's popularity has increased in particular due to cheap morning services from Helsinki and St. Petersburg, says Senior Vice President, Passenger Services Antti Tiitola . Allegro fares vary according to departure and season and the cheapest tickets cost 39 euros. Most of the Allegro's passengers are Russian but the share of Finnish passengers is continuing to grow. The number of passengers from other countries arriving in Finland on Allegro has increased.

– Allegro is an important connection for us and we want serve our customers as well as possible. We have invested a great deal on punctuality of trains and on service quality in e.g. restaurant cars, says Tiitola. Joint project of VR and Russian Railways Allegro services between Helsinki and St. Petersburg started on 12 December 2010 when the travel time was cut by two hours to the present three and a half hours. Allegro is a joint project of VR and RZD i.e. Russian Railways. VR and RZD are responsible for onboard service, timetable and ticket sale. The trains are owned by a joint rolling stock company of VR and RZD – Karelian Trains.