karelian trains, a 50-50 joint venture between finnish vr and russian railways, operates four 1522 mm gauge seven-car pendolinos for use on 220 km/h saint petersburg–helsinki services. branded "allegro" (""). service started on december 12, 2010, reducing travel time between the cities from five and a half hours to three and a half hours at first and later to three hours. the bogies are specially constructed to allow for 220 km/h speed both at the finnish gauge and the russian gauge .