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The Red Arrow (Russian: Кра́сная стрела́) is a Russian overnight sleeper train connecting Moscow and Saint Petersburg via the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway.
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History
The Red Arrow runs from Leningrad Station in Moscow to Moscow Station in Saint Petersburg. It started its first regular service in 1931, and has only been interrupted between 1941 and 1943 during the Siege of Leningrad. In 1962, the deep red colour of the train was adopted. Since 1965, the song "The Hymn to the Great City" has been playing when the Red Arrow leaves Saint Petersburg at 23:55. It was composed by Reinhold Glière in 1949 and has been adopted as the hymn of Saint Petersburg in 2003.
To enhance capacity, a second sleeper train was introduced in 1978, called the Red Arrow 2; this service leaves Moscow and Leningrad four minutes later. As newly designed cars were introduced by Russian Railways in 2007, the Red Arrow 2 was renamed Express. As the demand for sleeper train increased even more, a private sleeper train, called Megapolis, was introduced by the Tverskoy Express company, leaving Moscow or St Petersburg after the Red Arrow and Express.
Notable events
In honour of the 75th anniversary of the train, a special subway train called Red Arrow - 75 Years was launched in 2006 on the Moscow Metro. On 29 March 2010 the subway train was bombed in the terrorist attack at Lubyanka station. As of June 2010 the subway train has been repaired and relaunched.
Train times
There are 32 direct express train services daily from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, from which the following are selected.