Russian Railways spoke about the new high-speed highway Moscow-Petersburg

Russian Railways announced the risks of the St. Petersburg-Moscow (VSM) high-speed railway project, which arose due to a shortage of labor and an increase in the cost of building materials. At the same time, experts believe that the main risks are systemic, associated with the organization of entry and exit from Moscow, and especially from St. Petersburg. RZD does not mention these risks.

New risks

Deputy head of Russian Railways Oleg Toni, who oversees the St. Petersburg-Moscow high-speed rail project, announced the risks of the project at parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council. Appropriate calculations have been made in Russian Railways, he said. About what they will specifically lead to (to what increase in costs and implementation time), he did not say. He only mentioned a possible shift in the timing of "the production of high-tech products that are being developed for this project and will be produced in the country for the first time."

As RBC Petersburg has already reported, both risks are due to coronavirus problems. The shortage in the construction segment of the labor market is most caused by the departure of migrants to their homeland and the inability to return due to quarantines and border closures. The rise in prices for building materials was mainly due to the corona crisis destabilization of the global economy.

It is not clear from Tony’s statement what he is proposing - either to increase the project estimate, or to postpone the start of its implementation until the situation with building materials and the labor market stabilizes, which is most likely possible only after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic .

System problems

Meanwhile, earlier experts spoke about the serious systemic problems of the high-speed railway project related to the organization of entries and exits from Moscow and, especially, from St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg city defenders, transport specialists and architects insist on the suboptimal choice of a location for the VSM station in St. Petersburg. Thus, city defenders point out the inadmissibility of destroying the historical buildings of the former warehouses of the Northern Insurance Company (Kokorevsky warehouses) at 52 Ligovsky Prospect, where a new railway station is planned. Transport specialists and architects claim that the chosen location will lead to a transport collapse in the city.