Russia is buying new trains to allow through passenger trains to travel between Berlin and Moscow without changing bogies.

Russian federal railways has signed a contract worth more than £90 million for new trains from the Spanish company Talgo.

The Talgo trains will be able to automatically change from western Europe's standard gauge to Russia's wider tracks.

Currently trains between Moscow and Berlin have to stop at Brest Litovsk in Belarus where the carriages are separated, jacked up and their bogies changed.

The new 20-carriage long trains, three of which will be equipped for the Berlin-Moscow route, will have a top speed of 125 mph and passive tilt which will allow the journey time to be cut from 27 hours to 18 hours.

They will include sleeping coaches. Four of the Talgo trains will run between Moscow and Kiev, cutting travel time from 13 hours to seven hours.

Talgo trains already run successfully between standard-gauge Europe into broad-gauge Spain.

Information from Railway Gazette International.

More information from: wikipedia