The next Olympics, but one, are the Sochi winter Olympics in February 2014. As with all Olympics a significant investment in transport infrastructure is required. The Sochi conurbation on Russia’s Black Sea coast clings to the coastline as the mountains rise behind it. The games are to be held 30 miles inland around the town of Krasnaya Polyana which is to be at the end of a new 30 mile line. Other associated infrastructure projects are double tracking the line that runs through the Sochi conurbation along the Black sea, a new 1.7 mile spur to a new railway station at Sochi airport, opened in February this year, and station upgrading including a large new interchange at Alder. The new 30 mile line is part of a new road rail transport corridor being built by Russian Railways along a river gorge. Construction of the new railway and its adjacent road are interlinked. For example at three locations the road and railway is in parallel tunnels with a common service tunnel.
The other major rail investment for the games is 38 five car Desiro sets from Siemens, to be in service at the start of the games. These trains have been named Lastochka, Swallow in Russian. To date three of these sets have been delivered to Russia. Two are being used for testing and acceptance and one is in Sochi for driver training. Formal acceptance is anticipated in November with first trains entering service by the end of the year. The trains are dual voltage operation for both 3kv DC and 25kv AC with regenerative braking.
