The declaration was signed on September 21st at the InnoTrans 2010 international exhibition of transport technology in Berlin. Due to the growing interest in establishing direct rail services between Russian and French cities, the French National Railway Corporation (SNCF) declared its willingness to support a Russian Railways project to develop the direct Moscow – Paris service, and to improve service quality and passenger comfort.

In the declaration, Russian Railways, acting with the support of SNCF, announced the opening of a new Moscow – Nice passenger train service, with added-comfort carriages meeting all modern environmental standards. To improve the accessibility of rail transport, simplify the ticket sales system, and improve the passenger service quality, the parties agreed to introduce modern train ticket sales methods. This technology will unite the electronic ticket booking systems of Europe and countries of the CIS. On freight services, the parties also announced their readiness to cooperate in developing goods transport and terminals as part of the Europe – Asia transport corridor, and their intention of improving standards, to attract larger freight volumes.

The declaration also noted the parties’ readiness to attract investment and carry out joint programmes, through the creation of joint ventures or the signing of commercial deals aimed at implementing specific bilateral projects in rail transport. The French and Russian national rail companies also declared their willingness to attract political organizations and representatives of business circles of both countries to work on these projects.