The Finnish-Russian joint venture Karelian Trains and their Allegro trains is now history. After Russia attacked Ukraine the Allegro trains were put
on sidetracks for quite some time. And then when the Russian partner RZD failed to pay its share of the costs, the joint venture company was finally
liquidated and VR took over the Pendolino trains. They have now been renovated and repainted and VR is using them as "Pendolino Plus" trains between
Helsinki and Turku and Helsinki and Oulu. This is now one of the Pendolino Plus Sm6 trains in VR's livery.
Picture from Turku 6.1.2026 by Markku Salo.
The Finnish state railroads VR and the Russian RZD
set up in 2006 a joint venture company Oy Karelian Trains Ltd, which then bought from Fiat Ferroviaria / Alstom
Pendolino trains for fast traffic between Helsinki and St Petersburg. These trains are quite special.
The Finnish gauge is 1524 mm and the Russian 1520 mm. The Allegro Pendolinos are 1522 mm. They look like
the older generation Pendolinos, for example the ETR-470, but however, inside their technology is much
the same as the newer generation "Cis Due" or "New Pendolino" trains ETR-610. This picture from the Ilmala
repair shops in Helsinki is copyright VR.
