Vladimir Yakunin (president of Russian Raiways) said that the Pendolino was designed for the high-speed line between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki and that traffic would be organised on the existing infrastructure, but that this would require diverting freight traffic and constructing a 42-kilometer stretch through the Priozersky district of Leningrad region to the Finnish border at a cost of 400 billion roubles (at current prices).
