Russia’s First Autonomous Bullet Trains Are Coming—and They’ll Hit 400 km/h

Russia is laying the tracks for its most ambitious transport project yet: a high-speed rail line connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg, where trains will travel at up to 400 km/h—and no human hands will be on the controls

The futuristic rail corridor, cutting through the Tver region, is slated to launch in April 2028, with a total travel time of just a little over two hours between the nation’s twin capitals. Price tag? Over 2 trillion rubles. But the real headline: the trains will be autonomous.

Announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the system will be managed by cutting-edge Russian IT infrastructure, building on successful test runs of unmanned trains in Moscow. For now, human drivers will stay onboard—but only as observers. The algorithms are in control.

These aren’t prototypes. They’re a new class of rail-borne AI, engineered to deliver precision speed and safety at scale. The forum also saw the signing of critical agreements on rail infrastructure manufacturing, including the production of reinforced concrete slabs and expanded component supply chains.

What’s unfolding isn’t just a high-speed rail project—it’s an autonomous transportation revolution hardwired into the backbone of Russia’s future mobility. The bullet train is getting a neural net.