February 6, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region Government set up an ad hoc work team to consider ways in which Lastochka, an electric train designed and produced by Ural Locomotives (a member enterprise of Sinara Group), could be used at Sverdlovsk Railways, the government’s website states.

Sinara Group and Sverdlovsk Railways management are now calculating the financial scheme of the service, looking into possible routes, and deciding upon the necessary number of trains and their schedule.

The most popular destinations are considered first, including the most heavily used one, from Yekaterinburg to Nizhniy Tagil. This route is responsible for 20% of all the commuter traffic in Sverdlovsk Region. The work team is also thinking of launching a train from Yekaterinburg to Verkhoturye, a tourist attraction, as well as of destinations in Pervouralsk, Kamensk Uralsky, and Bogdanovitch. Experts are also considering launching interregional trains from Yekaterinburg to Chelyabinsk, Perm, and Tyumen.

‘We think it expedient for the time being to launch four daily trains from Yekaterinburg to Nizhniy Tagil in the most popular morning and evening hours. As for Yekaterinburg-Verkhoturye direction, one train once or twice a week, at weekends, should be enough,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Transport & Communication Minister Alexander Sidorenko.

One train currently costs between 400m and 500m RUR, depending on the options, with another 100m RUR worth of maintenance costs a year.