The Sibelius was a train run daily by VR between Helsinki, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia. The service began on 31 May 1992 to ease congestion on the night service Repin after the fall of the Soviet Union increased traffic on the border. The maximum speed of the train was originally 140 km/h (87 mph), and it was later raised to 160 km/h (99 mph). Travel times between the two cities were originally over 6 hours, but they reached 5 hours and 12 minutes in 2002 and dropped further to 5 hours and 6 minutes in 2006.[1]
The service, along with Repin, was discontinued on 12 December 2010 when it was replaced by the new high speed service Allegro.[1] Some of the carriages of the train were supposed to be used on regular traffic between Helsinki and Joensuu on IC 5/12 starting on 31 October 2011,[2] but their introduction has been delayed until at least 9 January 2012.[3][4]
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