The Allegro high-speed express train made its first trip today from Helsinki to St Petersburg, arriving at Finland Station on schedule at 16:50 Moscow Time.

Upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin and Tarja Halonen shared their impressions of the trip with reporters.

Responding to a question about how he liked the new train, Mr Putin said, "Very much! Over 200 kilometres per hour – that is seriously fast! We didn't even have time to have a proper conversation."

Asked what the leaders discussed, Mr Putin replied, "We talked about how to promote cooperation in the border region, Vyborg, and how economic ties are developing – and not only economic ties but cultural ones as well."

Mr Putin also said that during the conversation the idea was raised "to restore one of the old buildings in Vyborg from before 1939-1940 and make it a joint Russian-Finnish Cultural Centre."

In turn, Ms Halonen said in Russian: "Vsyo v poryadke." (Everything is alright.)

Then Mr Putin and Ms Halonen explored an exhibition on the Allegro project.

During their tour of the exhibition, Mr Putin asked the head of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, how much a trip on this train would cost. Mr Yakunin said that the price will be 15% lower than an airline ticket. A first-class ticket will cost 134 euros.

Ms Halonen, in turn, noted the interest travellers have already shown in the new Allegro train. All the seats have already been sold for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

During their tour of the exhibition, Mr Putin also said that there would be high-speed service between Moscow, Kazan, Samara and Ulyanovsk to transport fans during the 2018 World Cup.

"There is an idea to base the programme to build high-speed trains around World Cup destinations," said Mr Putin.

He said that there are already high-speed rail links between Moscow and St Petersburg and Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. Now Russia will have to build high-speed rail links with Kazan, Samara and Ulyanovsk.

"It will be a powerful impetus for the development of high-speed rail in the European part of Russia," said Mr Putin.