Intercity develops cooperation with the Russian Railroad

PKP Intercity and Russian Railways (Federal Passenger Campaign) establish cooperation. The first meeting of the Joint Working Group of PKP IC - FPC, which aims to design and develop joint traffic operation between the countries, took place on 21^st and 22nd of November in Warsaw.

The PKP Intercity - FPC Working Group is a joint venture of the largest international Polish and Russian passenger carriers. The initiative was put forward in Moscow during the July meeting of the railway companies managers - Janusz Malinowski, the President of PKP Intercity, and Mikhail Pavlovich Akulov, the President of the Federal Passenger Campaign – the result of which was an "Agreement on cooperation in the implementation of international rail passenger services" and for the establishment of the Standing Working Group. The Polish-Russian Group faces the task to develop projects and proposals for the implementation of international passenger traffic within the framework of both the offer which has already been implemented, and the one planned in future.

The group's first meeting took place in the Warsaw office of PKP Intercity. Several issues were addressed during the discussion, both concerning the current implementation of the international offer and the offer planned for 2012. A project started by the Russian carrier to establish a direct rail connection between Moscow and Paris is particularly important for Polish passengers. PKP would like the offer to be also available to those wishing to travel to France from Warsaw and Poznań. The meeting of the Working Group made the inclusion of PKP Intercity in the Russian railway project, and, consequently, providing Polish passengers with a chance to use the Paris or Nice train offer, more feasible. During the two-day meeting, the final text of the commercial contract on the running of the Moscow - Paris route train through Poland, and on the provision of restaurant cars belonging to PKP Intercity for a train running to Nice, and from December 2011 also to Paris, was developed and adopted.

The representatives of PKP Intercity and the Federal Passenger Campaign also discussed the issues of current technical cooperation and reducing the travel time on the route between Warsaw and Moscow. Ultimately, the carriers would like to make the travel on that route 15 hours long instead of current 18 hours. It will be possible, among others, by increasing the speed of the train throughout the course, i.e. on Russian, Belarusian and Polish railway tracks, and by the introduction of border controls while the train is running.

The next meeting of the PKP Intercity - FPC Working Group is scheduled for the first half of 2012.