The demonstration runs on Novosibirsk – Barnaul line coincided with the 100th anniversary of the railway, which was marked on August 18 with ceremonies in the two cities. More than 300 passengers received free tickets for the trip between the two cities and the five-car dual-voltage train completed the Novosibirsk – Barnaul journey in 3h 20min.

RZD says that as well as demonstrating the capabilities of the Lastochka, the opportunity was taken to carry out trial runs to assess the viability of operating similar trains on the route on a regular basis.

An initial batch of 38 Lastochkas was built at Siemens Krefeld plant in Germany and the EMUs are now being assembled by the Siemens/Sinara Ural Locomotives joint venture at its facility in Yekaterinburg. The trains are already in use on regional services from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, and Kursk, and St Petersburg to Bologoe and Petrozavodsk. The trains also operate in the Kazan and Sochi areas.