Helsinki, 25 Mar The Government of Finland has ordered the suspension of the train line between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki as from next Monday, the only railway connection between Russia and the European Union (EU) that remained in operation, Finnish railway company VR reported on Friday. VR officials pointed out that this decision by the Finnish Executive is due to the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, since the company operating this train service is 50% owned by the Russian state-owned company RZD. The Allegro, the high-speed train linking St. Petersburg and Helsinki, was until now one of the main routes of departure for the thousands of Russians fleeing sanctions, as the closure of airspace caused flights between Russia and Europe to be suspended. “Until now we have continued to operate the Allegro in accordance with the instructions of the authorities, and the purpose has been to ensure the return of the Finns to Finland. In these weeks people who wanted to leave Russia have had time to do so,” Topi Simola, director of VR, said in a statement. The Finnish railway company said that the last Allegro will arrive in Helsinki on Sunday afternoon and that it will cancel all subsequent trains “until further notice”. The Allegro was suspended for months due to travel restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic and returned to circulation last December, when the epidemiological situation improved, with two daily trains in each direction. After the resumption of the connection, the volume of passengers was lower than usual due to the pandemic, but according to VR, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, practically all trains from St. Petersburg arrived in Helsinki full. Most of the travelers were Russian citizens with contacts abroad who wanted to stay in Finland or continue their journey to other European countries.
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