Gentlemen

It seems that Eurostar train operator had fell to so called
"American late 1940´s sickness" when calculating the ticket
prices between Paris and London v.v.
The distance from Paris Nord to London St.Pancras is not
more than 492 km but Eurostar train ticket, including reserved
seat in 2nd class, is one way priced up to 231.80 euro.

The Thalys train service between Paris Nord and Bruxelles Midi
313 km is priced in 2nd class to 86 euro.

The fast AVE service 2nd class ticket in Spain is priced between
Madrid and Sevilla 470 km to 75.50 euro and between Madrid and
Barcelona 621 km 2nd class ticket costs 106.60 euro.

In Italy 2nd class train ticket from Roma to Milano 632 km costs
79 euro.

In France TGV fast train from Paris to Lyon 431 km costs in 2nd
class 63.10 euro.

X2000 train ticket from Stockholm to Copenhagen 648 km in 2nd class
is 160.40 euro.

Quite a differences in minds of the marketing departments when trying
to fix the best possible price what the customer is ready to pay for
travelling in high speed trains in Europe.

It has been published the preliminary plan in Russia to start the
SAPSAN high speed service in 2010.
There will be five Moscow - St.Petersburg v.v train pairs.
Two Moscow - Nizhnij Novgorod v.v train pairs and one St.Petersburg -
Moscow - Nizhnij Novgorod v.v. through train pair.
It is interesting to see to which price level the RZhD is going to fix
the ticket prices in these services.
I wonder is there going to be from one Moscow - St.Petersburg v.v
train pair arranged a possible connection to high speed St.Petersburg -
Helsinki trains in 2011, or are October Railway and Karelia Trains
forgetting the possibility to run from Moscow to Helsinki in less
than eight hours in day train with change of trains in St.Petersburg,
instead of using Moscow - Helsinki v.v. night trains 31 / 32 for this purpose.

Cheers
Jukka Nurminen
Helsinki Finland



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