for other uses see Sokol (disambiguation)

Sokol (disambiguation)

Sokol is a Pan-Slavic physical education movement, with origins in the Czech lands.Sokol, Sokół, or Szokol meaning falcon in Slavic languages, may also refer to:- Other uses :...

Sokol (Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 for "falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

") was a planned high speed train

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It was to be a successor of the ER200

ER200

The ER200 was a Soviet electric train built in Riga by Rīgas Vagonbūves Rūpnīca. It was the first high-speed Direct Current intercity Electric Multiple Unit with rheostatic brake....

 for use on the Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

-St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 mainline, and was designed to operate at a cruising speed of 300 km/h (maximum speed 350 km/h). A prototype was built in 1997 and tested by Russian High Speed Railway Shareholding Co.

The Sokol project was cancelled in 2002. Instead of a Sokol-based design, high speed trainsets (named Sapsan

Sapsan

Sapsan is a gauge high speed train in Russia. The design is part of the Siemens Velaro family....

) based on the Siemens Velaro

Siemens Velaro

Siemens Velaro is a family of high-speed EMU trains used in Europe and China. The Velaro is based on Deutsche Bahn's ICE 3 high-speed trains, but is a full Siemens product unlike the ICE 3 which involved other manufacturers....

 were procured from Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The Sapsan trains have been operating on the Moscow-St.Petersburg line since December 2009.

External links

• High Speed Trains - Sokol 4rail.net