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Russian, French corporations to design overnight trains for French railways

According to RZD President Vladimir Yakunin, the French railway authorities plan to revive overnight trains that were cancelled some time ago in the light of ramification of bullet train services.

PARIS, February 3. /TASS/. Russian state railway corporation RZD and the French national society for railways SNCF will pool their efforts in a project for designing overnight railway passenger routes in France, RZD President Vladimir Yakunin said in an interview published by Les Echos business daily.

"SNCF president Guillaume Pepy and I reached agreement recently on developing a project for overnight trains in France," he said.

According to Yakunin, the French railway authorities plan to revive overnight trains that were cancelled some time ago in the light of ramification of bullet train services. RZD’s experience in the field of running a highly expansive network of long-distance routes, most of which typically cover the distances of about a thousand kilometers, may be very handy for the French side.

"Given the huge distances in Russia, we still use these trains very extensively while in Europe they are disappearing gradually but the RZD help France to restore this type of railway services," Yakunin said.

"We’ll supply up-to-date coaches for the overnight routes that will be chosen by the SNCF," he said. "This project will start off before the yearend.".