The Red Arrow (Russian: Кра́сная стрела́) is a Russian sleeper train connecting Moscow and Saint Petersburg via the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway.
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 1949, the deep red color of the train was adopted.
Since 1965, the song "The Hymn to the Great City" (composed by Reinhold Glière and adopted as the hymn of Saint Petersburg) has been playing when the Red Arrow leaves Saint Petersburg at 23:55.
To enhance capacity, a second sleeper train was started in 1978, called the Red Arrow 2; this service leaves Moscow and Saint Petersburg 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, they introduced yet another sleeper service, called Megapolis, leaving Moscow or Saint Petersburg after the Red Arrow and Express.
In honor 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 the Lubyanka station. As of June 2010 the subway train has been repaired and relaunched.